ACMA 2014

Modeling and Simulation of Oil-Water Flows with Viscous Fingering

in Heterogeneous Porous Media.

H. DJEBOURI1, S. ZOUAOUI1, K. MOHAMMEDI2, and A. AIT AIDER1

1
Laboratoire de Mcanique Structure et Energtique (LMSE), UMMTO, Tizi-Ouzou, Ageria
2
Laboratoire d'Energtique Mcanique et Ingnierie (LEMI), MESOnexusteam, UMBB
Boumerds, Ageria

hassane2002dz@yahoo.fr, zouaoui_salah2003@yahoo.com

Abstract

Modeling and simulation of flows in porous media have practical applications in

petroleum and chemical industries. Advances in modeling and simulation of porous media
can help in the understanding of processes in petroleum rocks. The evolution of computing
resources has enabled the simulation to take an important place in the representation of
such flows. In this present study we are interested to the effect of viscosity on the oil-water
interface and the appearance of preferential flow paths (fingers). The physical region is a
square domain in the horizontal plane with high and low pressure points at the opposite
corners along one of the diagonals. Water, the invading fluid, when introduced at high
pressure displaces the oil present in the medium towards the low pressure production zone.
The conguration adopted for analysis is motivated by its application to enhanced oil
recovery (EOR) from natural reservoirs. A computational code based on the finite volume
method was used to solve this problem.

Keywords : Porous medium, fingering, multiphase flow, breakthrough.

1. Introduction :
The enhanced oil recovery is obtained by increasing the reservoir pressure by injection
fluids without altering the physico-chemical characteristics of the fluids present in the porous
medium. So it is important to choose the injected phase and the configuration of injection wells
to have a good sweep.
Fingering phenomena in oilwater flow have been studied by several authors. A single
discontinuity separating two homogeneous rock layers of different, constant permeability has
been studied by P. Daripa, J. Glimm, B. Lindquist, Maesumi, O. McBryan. This authors
have reported that the regions of local maxima in the permeability field serve as nuclei for
growth of fingers in porous media. C.T. Tan, G.M. Homsy considered the non linear
mechanisms involved in viscous fingering, where the instability characteristics of the flow field
was seen to depend on the mobility ratio of the two phases.
 Fingering phenomenon refers to the bypassing of the resident fluid such as oil by an
invading fluid, such as water. A pattern that is particularly disadvantageous is the appearance of
single or multiple fingers in the physical domain.

Many codes have been developed for the simulation of multiphase flow in porous media
such as ECLIPSE, VIP, UTCHEM, etc. . In this work we are interested to simulate the
fingering phenomena in oilwater flow by using the finite volume method.

2. Physical model :

In this study we consider an heterogeneous rigid and isotropic porous medium. The
heterogeneity is represented by the fact that the medium is composed of two regions of the same
porosity ( =30%) and equal thickness. The ratio of the permeabilities of the two zones is equal
to 1/3. The geometry is horizontal with an injection well and a recovery well located at the ends
of the diagonal. Its dimensions are x =10 m and y = 10 m, (figre1.a). A structured mesh is used
with a level adjustment to marry well to the surface geometry. This mesh is a regular structured
grid dimensions 100 100 cells, either a total of 10000 cells (Figure1.b). The wells are modeled
as holes with a radius of 0.25m. The pressures imposed at the injection and production wells are
respectively 1.79Mpa and 1.31Mpa.

Figure1 : Physical domain and its mesh

3. Mathematical Model :

Oil-water flow is governed by the conservation equations which are summarized below :
- Conservation of mass :

(1)

with i=1 or 2. (1:oil, 2: water) and :

: porosity of the porous medium
: saturation of the ith fluid in the porous medium
 : density of ith fluid (kg/m3)
: Darcy velocity (m/s).

- Generalized Darcy's law:

(2)

where :
the absolute permeability of formation (m2)
: phase pressure of the ith phase
: relative permeability of the ith fluid
: dynamic viscosity of the ith phase (N.m/s)

The combination of equations (1) and (2) gives pressure equation :

(3)

These equations are supplemented by constitutive relations.

4. Applications and Results :

In this study, two applications are studied. Results have been presented in terms of oil and water
saturations:

4.1 First application :

The region near the injection well is more permeable. Parameters used in the first application
are given in the following table:

Table 1 : Properties of fluids and the porous medium (case 1)

Fluids Viscosity (Kg/m.s) Density(kg/m3)
Water 0.001003 998.2
Oil 0.0048 960
Intefacial tension (N/m) 0.03
Porosity
X
Zone 1
Permeability (m2) Y
X
Zone 2
Y
Saturation profiles for oil-water flow are visualized as 2D images (figure2).

Figure2 : Saturation profiles for different times (case1)

4.2 Second application :

In this second application the zone near the injection well is less permeable. The
properties of the two fluids and porous medium are given in the following table (Table 2)
 Table 2 : Properties of fluids and the porous medium (case 2)
Fluids Viscosity (Kg/m.s) Density(kg/m3)
Water 0.001003 998.2
Oil 0.0048 960
Intefacial tension (N/m) 0.03
Porosity
X
Zone 1
2
Permeability (m ) Y
X
Zone 2
Y

The results of this application are also visualized as 2D images (figure3).

 Figure3 : Saturation profiles for different times (case2)

The results of the first application (figure 2) show that the high saturation of water is
firstly recorded near the injection point and then it spreads over time to neighboring areas. The
instability of the interface is at the beginning of the injection and gives rise to the formation of
fingers which extend in the first region (zone1) .When the injected fluid reaches the second
region (zone2) which is more permeable we notice that the front velocity increases and fingers
are moving rapidly towards recovery wells. We also note that when the injected fluid comes
abundantly at the producer wells, a significant amount of oil remains trapped in the porous
medium, especially in the zone of low permeability.

In the second application (figure 3) , the opposite phenomenon is observed at the first
application. The zone of low permeability, which is in the vicinity of the production well, tends
to stabilize the oil-water interface. At t=01h 23min the first finger detaches of the front (isolated
finger).The isolated finger continues its propagation to reach the production well and allows the
process of enhanced oil recovery to continue. At t=2h06min, water comes abundantly to
production wells and leaves in the middle a large quantity of oil.

After the two applications, we can say:

The low permeability near the production well tends to stabilize the oil-water interface
of displacement at this area.

The high permeability of the zone containing the producing well accelerates the injected
phase and causes early breakthrough of water, therefore the amount of oil remaining in
the medium is important.

5. Conclusion

The implementation of a computer code to simulate a water/oil multiphase flow has

enabled to visualize phenomena that are common in the field of flow in heterogeneous porous
media. The distribution of fluid phases in the porous medium obtained by this approach can
predict the behavior of wells for efficient oil recovery. Both applications show a number of
phenomena, including: water breakthrough and viscous fingering. Low permeability in the
vicinity of producer well tends to stabilize the oil-water interface of displacement at this region.
The high permeability in the zone containing the producer well accelerates the movement of the
injected fluid and causes early water breakthrough. Consequently, the quantity of oil remaining
in the medium is important.

5. References

[1] Ren Cosse. "Le gisement", publication de l'institut francais du ptrole, Paris 1989.

[2] C.Jaffrennoun-Larouche. "Dplacements triphasiques en milieu poreux de

mouillabilti htrogne". Thse de Doctorat. Paris VI, Novembre 1998.

[3] Wiliam.C : "Standard handbook of petroleum and natural gas engineering" , Lyons
Editor, 2002.

[4] Tanuja Sheorey et K. Muralidhar: "Isothermal and non-isothermal oil-water flow

and viscous
fringring in a porous medium", 2002, Muralidhar.

[5] Taylor & Francis Group : "Handbook of porous media", second edition. Edited by
Kambiz Vafai. 2005

[6] Peter Bastian : "Numerical Computation of Muiphase flow in Porous Media", juin
1999, Heidelberg.

[7] Johan Benard :" Ecoulements diphasiques en milieux poreux : modlisation et

simulation de cas d'imbibition, de drainage et d'bullition", Thse de doctorat, 2004,
Universit de Marne-la-Valle.

[8] Andr Houpert : " les coulements polyphasiques en milieu poreux", 1972, Paris.

[9] R.E. Ewing, The Mathematics of Reservoir Simulation, SIAM, Philadelphia, PA,
1983

[10] P. Daripa, J. Glimm, B. Lindquist, Maesumi, O. Mc. Bryan, "On the simulation of
heterogeneous petroleum reservoirs", in: M.F. Wheeler (Ed.), Numerical Simulation in
Oil Recovery, in: IMA Vol. Math. Appl., Vol. 11, Springer, Berlin, 1986, pp. 89103.

[11] C.T. Tan, G.M. Homsy, "Simulation of nonlinear viscous fingering in miscible
displacement", Phys. Fluids 31 (6) (1988) 13301338.