26 PETROLEUM RESERVOIR SIMULATION FLUID FLOW EQUATIONS 27

/ 2.6.4 Other Effects

/
/ There are several other effects that cause additional nonlinearities in the
Dorey's // basic flow equations. They are usually associated with special secondary
LOW'Y/ and tertiary recovery techniques. For example, polymer in the solution is
q adsorbed on reservoir rock and solution changes into water. Also, contact
/
/ with polymer reduces relative permeability to subsequent water flow.
/ Properties dependent on concentration must be considered when
/
/ immiscible equations are applied to miscible systems, CO 2 and micellar
t 3p/3x
floods, etc. In thermal recovery techniques, all coefficients in Darcy's Law
Threshold become functions of temperature. As a last example, Finol and Farouq Ali
FIG. 2.2. Threshold phenomenon. (1975) also considered compaction of reservoir rock under changing
pressure (ground subsidence).
2.6.3 Non-Newtonian Flow
Some fluids (e.g. polymer solutions) exhibit non-Newtonian behaviour,
characterised by nonlinear dependence of shear stress on shear rate. The
theory of such behaviour, which is beyond the scope of this book, is 2.7 FLUID AND ROCK PROPERTIES
discussed in the literature on rheology. For practical purposes, the
resistance to flow in porous media can be described by Darcy's Law which The character of the equations and the kind of methods that must be
includes apparent viscosity fl.app dependent on flowvelocity. An example of employed to simulate them depend to a large degree on fluid and rock
function fI. for polymer solution is in Fig. 2.3. The Darcy's velocity u can properties. A brief discussion of these properties is presented in this section,
thus be written as so that their role in reservoir simulation can be fully appreciated. Extensive
k treatment of physical properties and collections of correlations are found in
u = - fI.(u) ('lip - yVz) (2.99) Frick and Taylor (1962) and Katz et al. (1959).
The pseudoplastic region of flowcan be approximated over a wide range
of velocitieswith the power-law model (Blake-Kozeny equation, see Bird et 2.7.1 Fluid Properties
aI., 1960): For fluids that can be approximated by the isothermal fJ-model,
n-1
(2.100) formation volume factors and viscosities are functions of pressure only and
fl.app = HU
should be determined at reservoir temperature. Note that Bg is related to
The constants Hand n must be determined empirically. gas compressibility Z. Because compressibility of water Cw is small, it can
be expressed by the eqn. (2.40).
I--_~-- I-'-mox
I (2.101)
I di lotont
ci.
c- I pseUdoPlo~tic
I flow
o 4

:t. 1 "I where BWb and Pwb are the conditions at some reference point (usually
0>
o
I bubble point).
I-'-min - - Viscosities of oil and gas are generally strong functions of temperature
and this must be taken into account if temperature changes cannot be
logu- ignored as in the case of the flow in the wellbore or in thermal-recovery
FIG. 2.3. Apparent viscosity for non-Newtonian fluids(after Bondar et ai., 1972). processes. Temperature dependence at a given pressure can usually be