Modeling Fluid Flow In Heterogeneous And Anisotropic Porous Media
Name
1991.11 Zhao_Toksoz.pdf
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622.02 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bd2d3acf32b0aa60f4668016de870380
Author(s)
Zhao, Xiaomin
Toksoz, M. Naft
Date Issued
1991
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laboratory
Series/Report no.
Earth Resources Laboratory Industry Consortia Annual Report;1991-11
Abstract
Permeability distribution in reservoirs is very important for the flow of water or oil and gas. In this study, the effects of various heterogeneous permeability distributions on the flow field are simulated using the finite difference technique. We have simulated
the flow for two types of heterogeneous distributions, one is Gaussian and the other is
self-similar or fractal, the latter being much rougher than the former. The results show
that the flow is not sensitive to the roughness of the distribution. In the case of lineated heterogeneities, anisotropy in the flow properties occurs. The anisotropy is not very significant if the lineated highly permeable regions are surrounded by less permeable regions. However, in the case of lineated fractures, where the background permeability is small, the flow is very sensitive to the direction of the lineation, such anisotropy can produce orders of magnitude difference in permeability. Furthermore, it is shown that the degree of anisotropy depends on the connectivity of the fractures. The anisotropy decreases with decreasing connectivity.
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