Permeability upscaling for near-wellbore heterogeneities
- Univ. of Tulsa, OK (United States)
Reservoir simulations are limited to large-scale gridblocks because of prohibitive computational costs of fine-grid simulations. Rock properties, such as permeability, are measured on a scale smaller than coarse-scale simulation gridblocks. 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 radial flow in the vicinity of a wellbore. This study presents an analytical method to calculate effective permeability of a coarse-grid wellblock from its constituent fine gridblocks. The method uses the incomplete-layer upscaling procedure, which is modified for radial flow around wellbore but applied to permeability heterogeneity defined in a Cartesian grid scheme. The method is validated by numerical simulations of primary and secondary recovery processes involving two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) systems. The simulation results with permeabilities from radial flow upscaling for wellblocks agreed better with the simulation results with the original permeabilities than results from linear-flow upscaling.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 556872
- Journal Information:
- SPE Formation Evaluation, Journal Name: SPE Formation Evaluation Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 12; ISSN 0885-923X; ISSN SFEVEG
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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