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Immiscible Displacement of a Wetting Fluid by a Non-wetting One at High Capillary Number in a Micro-model Containing a Single Fracture

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Abstract

Most reservoirs in Iran are heterogeneous fractured carbonate reservoirs. Heterogeneity causes an earlier breakthrough and an unstable front which leads to a lower recovery. A series of experiments were conducted whereby the distilled water displaced n-Decane in strongly oil-wet glass micro-models containing a single fracture. Experimental data from image analysis of immiscible displacement processes are used to modify the Buckley–Leverett and fractional flow equations by a heterogeneity factor. It is shown that the heterogeneity factor in the modified equations can be expressed as a function of fracture length and orientation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Azadi Avenue, P.O. Box 1136509465, Tehran, Iran

    Ehsan Kamari & Davood Rashtchian

  2. Department of Abadan Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, Iran

    Seyed Reza Shadizadeh

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  1. Ehsan Kamari
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  2. Davood Rashtchian
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  3. Seyed Reza Shadizadeh
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Correspondence to Davood Rashtchian.

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Kamari, E., Rashtchian, D. & Shadizadeh, S.R. Immiscible Displacement of a Wetting Fluid by a Non-wetting One at High Capillary Number in a Micro-model Containing a Single Fracture. Transp Porous Med 94, 289–301 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-012-0005-1

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