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ABSTRACT -
indicating the direction of change - of the water
phase. As u s e d in t h i s paper, t h e s e c o n d letter of
Relative permeability functions are developed for
the symbol r e f e r s t o the direction of saturation
both two- and three-phase s y s t e m s with the saturation
change of the g a s p h a s e , i.e., D a n d I indicate an
changes in the imbibition direction. An empirical i n c r e a s e a n d d e c r e a s e , respectively, in g a s
relation between residual nonwetting-phase satura- saturation.
tion after water imbibition and initial nonwetting- Only a few three-phase relative permeability
phase saturations i s found from published data.
curves h a v e been published. L e v e r e t t a n d L e w i s 5
From this empirical relation, expressions are
published three-phase curves for unconsolidated
obtained for trapped and mobile nonwetting-phase s a n d , a n d S n e l l 4 reported r e s u l t s of s e v e r a l English
saturations which are u s e d in connection with
authors for both drairrage a n d imbibition three-phase
established theory relating relative permeability t o
relative permeability of unconsolidated s a n d s .
pore-size distribution. The resulting equations yield
Three-phase relative permeability curves for a
relative permeability a s a function of saturation
consolidated s a n d were published by Caudle e t a1.3
having characteristics believed to be representative
for increasing water a n d g a s saturations (ID). Corey
of real s y s t e m s . The relative permeability of
et a1.6 reported drainage (DD) three-phase relative
water - w e t rocks for both two- and t h r e e - p h a s e
permeability for consolidated s a n d s . Recently,
s y s t e m s , with the saturation change in the
Donaldson a n d Dean7 and Sarem8 calculated three-
imbibition direction, may be obtained by t h i s
p h a s e relative permeability curves from displacement
method after properly selecting two rock properties:
d a t a on consolidated s a n d s , a l s o for saturation
the residual nonwetting-phase saturation after the
c h a n g e s in the drainage direction.
complete imbibition c y c l e , and the capillary
The only published t h r e e - p h a s e relative
pressure curve.
permeability curves for consolidated s a n d s with
saturation c h a n g e s in the imbibition direction (11)
INTRODUCTION
a r e those of Naar a n d Wygal.9 T h e s e c u r v e s are
R e l a t i v e permeability i s a function of saturation b a s e d on a theoretical s t u d y of the model of Wyllie
history a s well a s of saturation. T h i s f a c t w a s first a n d Gardner 10 a s modified by Naar and Henderson. 11
pointed o u t for two-phase flow by Geffen et al. 1 I n t e r e s t in three-phase relative permeability h a s
a n d by O s a b a et a1.2 H y s t e r e s i s in the relative i n c r e a s e d recently due t o the introduction of new
permeability-saturation relation a l s o h a s been recovery methods a n d refinements in calculation
reported for three-phase s y s t e m s . 3 procedures brought about by the u s e of large-scale
Since s a t u r a t i o n s may change simultaneously in digital computers. T h e s c a r c i t y of empirical
two directions in a three-phase s y s t e m , four possible relations for three-phase flow, a n d the experimental
r e l a t i o n s h i p s a r i s e between relative permeability difficulty encountered in obtaining s u c h d a t a , have
a n d saturation for a water-wet system. T h e four made the theoretical approach to this problem
saturation h i s t o r i e s of t h i s s y s t e m were given by attractive.
snel14 a s 11, ID, DI a n d DD. I and D refer t o the
direction of saturation change (imbibition a n d RELATIVE PERMEABILITY AS A
drainage), with the f i r s t l e t t e r of t h e symbol FUNCTION O F PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION
P u r c e l l u s e d pore s i z e s obtained from mercury-
Original manuscript r e c e i v e d i n Society o f Petroleum Engineers
o f f i c e J u l y 6 . 1967. R e v i s e d manuscript r e c e i v e d F e b . 2 1 , 1968. injection capillary pressure d a t a t o c a l c u l a t e t h e
P a p e f (SPE 1942) w a s presented at SPE 42nd Annual Fall Meet- permeability of porous solids.12 Burdine extended
ing held i n Houston, T e x . , O c t . 1-4, 1967. @ Copyright 1968
American Institute o f Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum the theory by developing a relative permeability-pore
Engineers, Inc. s i z e distribution relation containing the correct
l ~ e f e r e n c e sg i v e n at end o f paper. tortuosity term.13 T h e works of P u r c e l l a n d Burdine
T h i s paper will b e printed i n Transactions Volume 243, w h i c h
w i l l cover 1968.
were combined by Corey14 into a form t h a t h a s
JUNE. 1968
been accepted widely. These relations have been gas saturation (S;, )max. Then
derived from the capillary tube mode1,1**13 the
Kozeny equation15 and the model of Wyllie and
~ a r d n e.lo
r
Corey and co-workers6 extended the concept of
relative permeability dependence on pore-size
distribution to three-phase flow with saturation
changes in the drainage direction. Using the model
of Wyllie and Gardner that was adapted to include
a trapping mechanism for the nonwetting phase, 1
Naar and Henderson11 developed equations for
where C = - 1.
two-phase imbibition relative permeability. The (S*gr )max
extension to three - phase imbibition relative Plots of the data of several authors are shown in
permeability then was made by Naar and wygal.g Fig. 1. The solid lines are least-squares fits of
Capillary pressure-saturation relations are Eq. 2 to the data. In some c a s e s , the critical
subject to hysteresis, due in part to entrapment of wetting-phase saturation was not reported, and a
the nonwetting phase when the wetting -phase reasonable assumption of this value was made to
saturation i s increased. Fundamental to the convert all saturations to the reduced saturations.
-.
development of imbibition relative permeability The initial effective gas saturations greater thgn
curves i s the concept that pore-size distribution of unity shown in Fig. 1 are results of converting
a porous medium i s defined by drainage capillary initial saturations to effective saturations when
pressure-saturation relation. If the saturation of the the data reported were for samples containing no
nonwetting phase that i s mobile after a saturation water. Data from all available sources yielded a
change in the imbibition direction can be assigned good fit to Eq. 2.
to the correct pore s i z e s , imbibition relative
permeability curves can be derived from known TWO-PHASE IMBIBITION
theory. RELATIVE PERMEABILITY
For the general c a s e of two- and three-phase To develop equations for relative permeability
flow, a Corey-Burdine equation can be written, with the saturation change in the imbibition
direction, i t i s first necessary to be able to predict
the saturation of the nonwetting phase that remains
mobile a t any saturation. In the following discus-
sion, the nonwetting phase i s gas and the wetting
phase i s water.
Consider that the porous medium initially contains
a gas saturation S* which was established by
withdrawal of water brainage). If the water satura-
where S i F i s the mobile or "free" saturation of tion i s now increased from i t s initial value S&i to
phase n, whose relative permeability k,, is i t s maximum value 1 - S i r , the g a s saturation S *
g
being sought; and S t and are the saturations assumes every value between S*i and S* a s the
gr
corresponding to the minimum and maximum pore saturation S * - S i r i s r e p l a c e d by water. During
st.
this change In saturation, the saturation of gas
s i z e s occupied by sGF. Saturations S; and S; are
particular values of S* which i s the fraction of the
effective porosity represented by the sum of all
pores smaller than the pore s i z e being considered.
For simplicity, reduced or effective saturations are
TorptdO 8ondrtont
used throughout this paper, i.e., saturations are (Tbrtt rompltal (Tmo sornpltal
Rtl 20 R t f 19
fractions of pore volume, excluding pore volume
occupied by the critical (immobile) wetting phase. Group A
( T h r t t 80mplt1) R t f 17
2b
TRAPPED GAS SATURATION
V)
2 Polnta from
Several papers 16-20 have been published relating ~ y t r c' u r v t
t
$v
the initial gas saturation to the residual gas n
1
saturation left trapped after imbibition. Plots of Mallit 0ly s~ndstona T o r ~ a d os o d a t o n #
m Ref 16 / Rtf I 0
data reported in these papers result in curves
having a characteristic shape, It i s found from :r:auotsa
2 Polnt omitted l n IeuIt
these data that the difference in the reciprocals of squora colculot~on
the initial and residual gas saturation approximately
are constant for a given sand. Residual saturation I N I T I A L GAS S A T U R A T I O N , Sg,*
increases with an increase in the initial gas
saturation. When the initial g a s saturation i s unity, FIG. 1-PLOTS OF PUBLISHED DATA SHOWINCj THE
FIT OF CURVE l/Sg,* - l/Sgi* = C.
the residual gas saturation i s the maximum residual
SOCIETY OF PETROLEllY E S G l S E E R S JOURNAI.
that has been trapped, S*,, increases from zero a t where 6 = 2/h + 3.
the initial conditions, S$ g
= Szi, to a value of S *
gr
In an oil-water system in the absence of gas, the
when Sk = Sgf,. At any g a s saturatlon S* the trapped above equations are equally valid with subscript g
g'
gas saturation Sz, does not contribute to gas flow replaced by o if it i s assumed that the porous
and i s distinguished from the gas saturation that medium i s completely water wet.
has remained mobile or free, SF. Then the trapped In the two-phase system, the entire wetting phase
and mobile gas saturations a t any instant are parts remains mobile. As water saturation increases, the
of the total gas saturation (S; = Sgi + XiF) a s 5; water invades the next larger s i z e pores, trapping
varies from Sii to S* some gas in pores of the s i z e invaded. Since some
?! r'
If the water saturation now i s increased from its of the pores of the size occupied by water contain
initial value s o that gas saturation S i has a value trapped gas, for a particular water saturation
between S i i and S i r , the saturation S i i - S* has some water must occupy pores of a larger s i z e than
been replaced by water, S i t has been trappegd and i t would occupy if the trapped gas were not present.
S i F i s considered to be unaffected by the increase Water relative permeability under these conditions
in water saturation. The mobile gas saturation S* gF can be expressed by the equation
i s that part of S; that i s susceptible to displace-
ment and entrapment upon further reduction of S* g'
If Sg* i s reduced to S* the contribution of S* to
grl
the resldual gas saturation can be found by app ying 5"
S i F a s an initial saturation in Eq. 2. The gas
saturation that i s trapped, S* a t any gas saturation
S;, plus the additional gas $it will be trapped (the
contribution of XiF) during a reduction in gas
saturation from S; to S;,, must equal the residual
value Sg', associated with Xii. Then the trapped PC i s a function of S*, the fraction of the effective
porosity that i s the sum of a l l pores smaller than
gas saturatlon can be expressed a s
the largest containing water. Since the integrand in
the numerator of Eq. 7 i s to be integrated with
respect to St, it i s necessary to express either P C
a s a function of 5,: or S$ a s a function of S*. PC
Making the substitution S i t = Si - XiF, and solving can be expressed a s a function of S; since S* = 1
Eq. 3 for XiF,
- SiF and SgF i s related to SL through Eq. 4. The
resulting capillary pressure a s a function of 5,: i s
the imbibition capillary pressure which would be
obtained if the contact angle i s the same in
imbibition a s in drainage.
For the purpose of developing equations of
relative permeability, 5,: i s treated a s a function
of 5'. Since S* i s the sum of the water saturation
Eq. 4 i s an expression for the g a s saturation
and the trapped gas saturation, Eq. 7 can be
that remains mobile after the g a s saturation has
written
been reduced from S i i to 5;. This gas saturation
may be used in the equation relating gas relative
permeability to pore-size distribution.
Eq. 5 yields relative permeability - saturation Eq. 3 can be written in terms of S*, since S*
relations for the nonwetting phase with the = gF
1 - S*. This substitution results in an equatlon
saturation change in the imbibition direction. For which, when differentiated, yields
porous media having a pore-size distribution such
that S * -
- (-
C ~
- ~ S ~where
' ) ~ , h i s a pore-size distri-
k,,=
"1 :-2J
SgF I - ( I - S ) , . . . .. . . (6) Substituting Eq. 9 into Eq. 8 gives
J U N E , 1968
This equation can be generalized a s k,wi = k,wd +
f (3;) where f(S;), the last term of Eq. 12, i s the
difference in imbibition and drainage relative
permeability brought about by the redistribution of
the water phase. The function f(S&) i s different
for each pore-size distribution, and the numerical
values given by the function increase with increas-
ing range of pore sizes. When a l l pores are of the
same s i z e ( 6 = 3), f (5;) = 0.
THREE-PHASE IMBIBITION
Jo
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (10) RELATIVE PERMEABILITY
For the special c a s e const./Pc2 = S*, integration When three phases saturate the porous medium,
of Eq. 10 results in the equations for imbibition gas relative permeability
are the same a s for the two-phase system. This i s
because the g a s , being nonwetting, occupies the
same pores regardless of the nature of the liquids
present. For similar reasons, if the porous solid i s
water wet, the imbibition relative permeability to
water i s the same function of water saturation for
both the two- and three-phase systems.
In a three-phase water-wet system of water, oil
and gas, both oil and gas are trapped a s water
saturation i s increased. To develop the following
equations for the relative permeability to oil, the
assumption i s made that the maximum residual
hydrocarbon saturation i s the same, regardless of
whether the initial hydrocarbon saturation i s gas,
oil or both. This usually i s considered to be true;
s;r
or
t
Sor =
s:q . . . . . . . (13)
I + c(s:,+ di) When 1 / P z i s a linear function of S * , Eq. 16
Making u s e of the procedure previously used to results in
arrive a t the expression for the free gas saturation,
the free oil saturation i s found to be
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
WATER SATURATION, s',