Simulating Perforation Permeability Damage and Cleanup
Completion of cased and cemented wells by shaped charge perforation causes its own damage to the formation, potentially reducing well productivity. In practice it is found that underbalance conditions clean up the damaged zone to some extent, however, the mechanisms of these processes are poorly understood. Most hydrocodes typically used to simulate rock response to shaped charge penetration do not provide permeability estimates. Furthermore, the time scales for formation clean up are potentially much longer than the period of jet penetration. We have developed a simple, yet accurate model for the evolution of porosity and permeability which can easily be incorporated into existing hydrocodes using information from the history of each cell. In addition, we have developed a code that efficiently simulates fines migration during the post-shot surge period using initial conditions taken directly from hydrocode simulations of jet penetration. Results from a one-dimensional model simulation are in excellent agreement with measured fines and permeability distributions. We also present two-dimensional numerical results which qualitatively reproduce experimentally obtained permeability maps for different values of underbalance. Although initial results have been promising, further comparison with experiment is essential to tune the coupling between the hydrocode and fines migration simulator. Currently the permeability model is most appropriate for high permeability sandstones (such as Berea), but with little effort, the model can be extended to other rock types, given sufficient experimental data.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 793699
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-140438; TRN: US200218%%45
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Sep 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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