The Effects of Non-Darcy Flow on the Behavior

Of Hydraulically Fractured Gas Wells

S. A. Ho'ditch, SPE-AIME, Texas A&M U.
R. A. Morse, SPE-A1ME, Texas A&M U.

Introduction
Laminar flow of fluid through porous media can be de scribed using Darcy's law:
Apl AL = ,uvlk. ............................................................. (1)
This equation indicates that if the resistance Ca/k)
remains constant, the pressure gradient (Ap/AL) is
proportional to the velocity of the fluid (v). However,
when the velocity is increased such that the flow is not
laminar, the pressure drop will increase more than the
proportional increase in velocity.
Fancher et al.' recognized this behavior and published
a paper in 1933 that gave an analogy between the flow of
fl ui ds t hrough porous media a nd the fl ow of fluids
through pipe. Several authors, including Brownell and
Katz 2 and Tek , 3 have since published methods for pre dicting the laminar and turbulent regions of flow in po rous media based on correlations similar to the Reynolds
number for flow in pipe.
The generalized equation for flow through porous
media may be represented by the following equation
suggested by Forchheimer.4
Ap/AL = i uvlk +

the fluid density (p) and the g factor, which is a characteristic of the porous medium. Several authors have pub lished empirical correlations of the g factor with the
porosity and permeability of the porous media .36'7
Geertsma 7 pointed out that the analogy between lami nar and turbulent flow of fluids in porous media to the
flow of fluids in pipes could be misleading. Geertsma
stated that turbulence does not actually occur in the small
pore systems of reservoir rock, and the cause of the
increased pressure gradients at high fluid velocities is
inertial resistance. Consequently, Geertsma defined the
paramater /3 as the coefficient of inertial resistance.
Geertsma's paper, therefore, has created a bit of con troversy concerning the terminology of the parameter /3
in the Forchheimer equation.
In reality, the excess pressure gradients at high fluid
velocities can be caused by either turbulence or inertial
resistance, or by a combination of the two, depending on
the particular pore configuration of the reservoir rock
being considered. In this paper, the parameter is refer red to as the g factor. Regardless of its name, the g factor
is a value used to calculate the correct pressure gradients
under non-Darcy flow conditions.
Cooke' investigated non-Darcy flow in packed, hy draulically induced fractures. He noted that g factors for
fractures packed with multiple layers of sand had not
been reported in the petroleum literature and suggested
the following equation for calculating g factors:

g = b1( ,000k) .............................................. (4)

av2 ............................................................................................. (2)

If the constant (a) or velocity (v) approaches zero,

then the second term can be ignored and Eq. 2 is
equal to Darcy's law (Eq. 1).
Cornell and Katz5 reformulated Eq. 2 as follows:
Ap/AL = kc y lk + Opv2

(3)

In Eq. 3, the constant (a) was replaced by the product of

A reservoir simulator modified to include non-Darcy flow and fracture closure was used

to demonstrate the effects of non-Darcy gas flow in a hydraulic fracture on well

performance. Results illustrate the effects on the gas-well productivity index and on the
analysis of pressure buildup tests.
OCTOBER, 1976

1169