Permeability upscaling for near-wellbore heterogeneities
- Univ. of Tulsa, OK (United States)
Reservoir simulations are limited to large scale grid blocks due to prohibitive computational costs of fine grid simulations. Rock properties, such as permeability, are measured on smaller scale than coarse scale simulation grid blocks. Therefore, the properties defined on a smaller scale are upscaled to a coarser scale. Few prior studies on permeability upscaling paid special attention to the problem of the radial flow in the vicinity of a wellbore. This study presents an analytical method to calculate effective permeability for a coarse-grid well-block from fine-grid permeabilities. The method utilizes serial and parallel averaging procedures modified for radial flow. The method is validated with numerical simulations of primary and secondary recovery processes involving 2- and 3-D systems. The results of coarse grid simulations with the permeabilities upscaled through the new well-block approach agree well with the results of the fine grid simulations with initial permeability distributions.
- OSTI ID:
- 471902
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961003--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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