Int. J Sci.

Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012

46
Experimentally Measurements of Relative
Permeability in Fractured Core
Mojtaba Izadi
#1
, S. Reza Shadizadeh
#2
, Siyamak Moradi
#3
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Abadan Faculty of Petroleum Engineering,
Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, Iran
1
izadi.mojtaba116@gmail.com
2
shadizade@yahoo.com
3
mora3di@gmail.com

Abstract -Naturally Fractured Reservoirs consist of two
systems of flow characterization including fracture and
matrix systems. The inter-relationship of the fracture
and matrix system controls the mechanisms of the oil
recovery from naturally fractured reservoirs.
Immiscible displacements such as oil and water flooding
in naturally fractured reservoirs depend on this inter-
flow of matrix-fractured system and fluid properties.
Contemporary understanding of multiphase flow
through fractures is limited. Numerous studies using
synthetic fractures and various fluids lead to different
relative permeability curves. In this work fractured
core are used to investigate relative permeability of
fracture-matrix system. Unsteady state oil-flooding
experiments are performed using brine water and
kerosene to determine relative permeability curves.
This study revealed Relative permeability curves in
fractured core cant be consider as straight line and
have curvature i.e. non zero capillary pressure in
fracture-matrix system. The results also showed
fracture orientation can affects oil and water relative
permeability curves.
Keywords: Fractured core; Naturally Fractured
Reservoirs; Relative Permeability; Two-phase Flow;
Unsteady-state Core flooding
1. Introduction
Understanding of fluid flow in fractured media is
interested in petroleum engineering, ground water
resource and environmental engineering for assessing
the movement of hazardous wastes into ground
water. Naturally fractured reservoirs contain about
25-30% of the world supply of oil.
One of the most uncertain terms in equations of
multiphase fluid flow through porous and fractured
media is relative permeability. Well understanding of
this basic parameter is necessary to have reliable
reservoir simulations and other models of fractured
media.
Absolute permeability refers to 100% saturation
of a single-phase fluid. The absolute permeability of
a fracture is a function of fracture aperture and is
given by the following equation: [1]
2
6 2
84 10
12
f
f
b
K b

(Eq.1)
And the total permeability of matrix-fracture
system derived from below equation: [1]

t f f m
K K K

(Eq.2)
In petroleum reservoirs, however, the rocks are
usually saturated with two or more fluids, such as
water, oil and gas. The effective permeability is the
ability of a media to conduct a fluid when the fluid
has a saturation of less than 100%. Relative
permeability is defined fraction of effective
permeability to absolute permeability and expressed
as:
eff
ri
abs
K
K
K

(Eq.3)
So the Darcy law for multiphase flow is expressed as:
i
ri
i
KK
u P

(Eq.4)
Increased understanding of flow behavior in
fractures provides more realistic models.
Experimental works on flow through fractures show
different kinds of relative permeability behavior.
Some works are based on this assumption that fluid
flow in a fracture reservoir is dominated by fracture;
as a result, the experiments are conducted on a single
or system of fracture. Romm (1966) was the first one
to perform a laboratory study on fracture relative
permeability. He studied two-phase flow experiments
between smooth, vertical parallel glass plates. He
concluded that fracture relative permeability is a
linear function of saturation (X-curves), where the
limiting values of the relative permeabilities K
ro
* and
K
rw
* were both one, and the residual saturations were
both zero [2]. Pruess and Tsang (1990) conducted
numerical simulation for flow through rough-walled
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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012
47
fractures. Their study showed that the sum of the
relative permeabilities is less than one and residual
saturation of the nonwetting phase is considerable
[3]. Results of Persoff et al. (1991) study on gas and
water flow through rough-walled fractures showed
strong phase interference [4].

Rossen and Kumar
(1992) performed air-water flow experiments in
horizontal smooth and artificially roughened
fractures. Their results suggest a range of possibilities
between the "sub-Corey" results of Pruess and Tsang
(1990) and the X-curves [5].

Persoff and Pruess
(1995) measured gas-liquid relative permeability and
capillary pressure in realistic rough-walled rock
fractures; their results suggest that fracture relative
permeability should not be considered as a straight
line with a value equal to the phase saturation or as a
Corey-type behavior [6].

Pan et al. (1996) by
conducting oil-water experiments in smooth fractures
showed that fracture relative permeability can be
considered as straight line but the value are not
necessarily equal to phase saturation [7]. Diomampo
(2001) performed nitrogen-water experiments on
both smooth and rough parallel plates, their relative
permeability curves followed the Corey shape, and
sum of the gas and liquid relative permeability for all
experiments was less than unity [8]. Shad et al.
(2010) studied the flow of water in presence of heavy
oil in a single fracture model; the result of this study
reveals that the lubrication effect between oil and
water phases caused values higher than unity for
relative permeability curves in a horizontal fracture.
The results also showed that fractures and flow
orientation affect the relative permeability curves. In
a vertical fracture with upward flow direction the oil
relative permeability is close to the value of its
saturation as a result of gravity, phase interference
and lubrication effect. The water relative
permeability curve is a straight line with the slope of
0.43. For the case of horizontal flow in vertical
fracture the X-curve model can be a good
representative of relative permeability curves because
gravity force is dominant and there is no lubrication
[9].
While above mentioned works done on fracture
system some other researcher worked on fracture-
matrix system; Deghmoum et al. (2000) used
centrifuge technique test for the case of wide fracture,
the relative permeability curves obtained from
centrifuge technique were partially linear (K
ro
is
linear but K
rw
has some curvature). For fractured core
without space between two parts unsteady state gas-
water relative permeability test was performed and
yielded a normal relative permeability curve [10].
Akin (2001) used a methodology to obtain fracture
oil/water relative permeability from unsteady state
core flooding. He concluded that fracture relative
permeability is a power law function of its
corresponding phase saturation, and the sum of
fracture relative permeabilities is less than unity in
intermediate saturations [11]. Edgar Rangel-German
et al. (2006) conducted their experiments by means of
two of rectangular blocks of Boise sandstone cores.
Production and porosity values showed that the
assumption of zero capillary pressure in the fracture
is not correct, X-type relative permeability curves can
be used for fractured systems but relative
permeability value is not equal to phase saturation
[12]. Kewen Li (2009) derived a new generalized
model for capillary pressure and relative
permeability, and compared the result of this model
with the result of the steady state experiments. The
theoretical derivation conducted in this study further
demonstrated that the BrooksCorey model for the
drainage case and the Purcell model for the
imbibition case have a confirmed theoretical basis.
According to the new model the relative permeability
of each phase in a smooth fracture is only a linear
function of its own saturation. In this work a
fractured core used to study the relative permeability
of fracture-matrix system. Core flooding experiments
used to investigate relative permeability of
horizontally and vertically fractured core [13], [14].
2. Experimental procedure
A core sample with properties presented in Table
1 was prepared from Ahwaz sandstone out crops. The
helium porosimeter was used to determine the
porosity of the plug sample. For permeability
measurements, pressure drops across the core sample
in the core holder were recorded under different
injection rates of water. Cartesian plot of p versus q
is a straight line of slope L/ K A (Figure1), the
permeability is estimated from following equation:
[15]
K
abs
= L / (Slope of the p versus q plot) A (Eq.5)

Afterword, kerosene injected in to fully brine
water saturated at a constant flow rate of 0.1 CC/min
(fluids properties presented in Table1). Pressure, time
and production data recorded for injection increments
of one milliliter of kerosene. Injection of kerosene
continued until no more water is produced, i.e. the
irreducible water saturation.

After these, the core cleaned by toluene in
soxhlet for 24 hours and to remove any potential salt
precipitations from the core, extraction procedure
was repeated by using pure water as extractor instead
of toluene for 24 hours; at the next step the cleaned
core plugs should be dried in an oven at a
temperature of 140 C for 24 hours.



Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012
48
Table 1: Properties of fluids

At the next step to simulate fracture opening the
core split along the length by saw cut. Two parts of
core set on each other without any spacer, before
setting the core in the core holder the edges of two
parts of the core should be cemented to each other in
a way that solve the problem of high conductive path
that create because of the roundness of the edges
which created by saw cutting. During the process of
sawing about 2mm of cross sectional area of the core
sample is lost due to saw disk thickness. Thus the
form of the cross-section area become elliptical and it
is taken into account for fluid flow correction.
In the case of fractured cores also the pore
volume and permeability were measured by the same
procedure. Oil flooding experiment done in constant
flow rate of 0.1 CC/min; Pressure, time and
production data recorded then Relative permeability
curves plotted. The experiment conducted for two
cases of horizontal fracture in the direction of
horizontal flow and vertical fracture in the direction
of a horizontal flow.
3. Result and Discussion
3.1. Matrix porosity and permeability
The matrix of core has a porosity of 15.2%. For
characterization of absolute permeability, pressure
drops are measured across the core samples at
various flow rates. Absolute permeability of core
plugs can be deduced from slope of pressure drop
versus flow rate (Figure1); the absolute
permeabilities are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Rock properties

Figure 1: Pressure drop versus flow rate for matrix of
core.
3.2. Matrix relative permeability
To calculate the relative permeability values it is
assumed that the recorded pressure gradient can be
applied to both phases. Then the relative permeability
curves can be calculated by using flow rate of each
phase in the Darcy law.
The relative permeability curves of the matrix
(Figure 2) show that S
wi
is about 0.56 and end point
relative permeability of water is higher than that of
kerosene. Oil critical saturation is about 0.33.
Pressure profile in Figure 3 shows that after
breakthrough the pressure drop decrease with time.
Fluid Properties ) at 28 C)
Fluid type
Distilled water 0.9991 0.958
9
Brine water (180000
ppm)
1.1118 1.375
8
Kerosene 0.788 1.494
2
Rock Properties
Core L
(cm)
A(c
m
2
)
(
%)
K(m
D)
Full diameter
core
10.0
42
10.5
9
15.
16
0.47
Horizontal
fractured
core
10.0
42
9.33 19.
04
16.4
8
Vertical
fractured
core
10.0
42
9.33 18.
87
18.8
6
Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012
49

Figure 2: Relative permeability curves of oil
flooding test conducted on matrix

Figure 3: Pressure drop during oil flooding
test conducted on matrix
3.3. Absolute permeability and porosity of matrix-
fracture system
The fractured core porosity and absolute
permeability were measured by the same procedure
(Figures 4 and 5). The permeability of the fractured
core is 35 times greater than that of matrix for
horizontal fracture and 40 times greater in vertical
fractured case (Table2). This high value of
permeability of fractured core is due to high
conductivity of fracture.

Figure 4: Pressure drop vs. flow rate for
horizontally fractured core.

Figure 5: Pressure drop vs. flow rate for
vertically fractured core.
3.4. Relative permeability curves for matrix-
fracture system
For the case of horizontal fracture in the
direction of flow, the end points relative
permeabilities for water are higher than those of oil.
Both water and oil relative permeability curves have
Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012
50
a smooth curvature (Figure6).

Figure 6: Relative permeability curves of oil
flooding test conducted on horizontally fractured
core.

Figure 7: Pressure drop during oil flooding test
conducted on horizontally fractured core.
For a vertical fracture in the direction of a
horizontal flow (Figure8), both oil and water relative
permeability curves have curvature in higher water
saturation but in lower saturations both curves
became flatter and K
r
varies slowly with water
saturation.
The rational reason behind this behavior is that;
when the flooding begins, at the first the fracture and
nearby matrix which has a good interaction with the
fracture are swept and relative permeabilities changes
rapidly with decreasing water saturation. But after
that the fracture space widely flooded and swept,
saturation variations mainly related to its changes in
matrix. In this stage two phase flow mainly occurred
in matrix, and relative permeability of whole
fracture-matrix system is controlled by effective
permeability of matrix. This demonstrates that effect
of matrix flow became significant after the fracture is
swept. Pressure drop profile versus time of flooding
test also approves this behavior. As shown in Figures
7 and 9, in fractured core, pressure drop increased
slowly after breakthrough time while in conventional
core (unfractured) the pressure drop decreased.
Increase of pressure drop in fractured core is due to
the effect of flow in matrix. While matrix is still
being swept breakthrough occurred in fracture.

Figure 8: Relative permeability curves of oil
flooding test conducted on vertically fractured core.

Figure 9: Pressure drop during oil flooding test
conducted on vertically fractured core
4. Conclusions
1. The results of this study proved the complexity
involved in multiphase flow in fractured reservoir.
2. Relative permeability curves in fractured core cant
be considered as straight line and have curvature
this curvature shows phase interference and non-
zero capillary pressure.
Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol-3 No 1 January, 2012
51
3. Results also show that fracture orientation affects
oil and water relative permeabilities and the shape
of relative permeability curves.
Nomenclature
K
f
fracture permeability
K absolute permeability
P pressure drop
K
effi
effective permeability of phase i
K
ri
relative permeability of phase i
u flow velocity of phase i
b
f
fracture aperture

t
Fracture porosity
A cross sectional area
Density
Viscosity
L length of the core
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the
Petroleum Research Center of Ahwaz faculty of
petroleum engineering-Petroleum University of
Technology for providing office space and access to
laboratory materials and equipments. We are also
grateful for the support from National Iranian South
Oil Company (NISOC).
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