Flow and displacement of Bingham non-Newtonian fluids in porous media

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Production Engineering; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/20051-PA· OSTI ID:7103783

Wu, Y S; Pruess, K; Witherspoon, P A ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley Lab. (US)

This paper presents a theoretical study of the flow and displacement of a Bingham fluid in porous media. An integral method of analyzing the single-phase flow of this type of fluid is developed. The accuracy of a newly developed approximate analytical solution for transient-flow problems is confirmed by comparison with numerical solutions. The flow behavior of a slightly compressible Bingham fluid is discussed, and a new well-test-analysis method is developed by use of the integral solution. To obtain some understanding of the physics of immiscible displacement with Bingham fluids, a Buckley-Leverett analytical solution with a practical graphic evaluation method was developed and applied to the problem of displacing a Bingham fluid with water. Results revealed that the saturation profile and displacement efficiency are controlled not only by the relative permeabilities, as in the case of Newtonian fluids, but also by the inherent complexities of Bingham non-Newtonian behavior. In particular, we found that in the displacement process with a Bingham fluid, a limiting maximum saturation exists beyond which no further displacement can be achieved.

• OSTI ID: 7103783
• Journal Information: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Production Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Production Engineering; (United States) Vol. 7:3; ISSN SPENE; ISSN 0885-9221
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200 -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
DRILLING
EQUATIONS
FLOW MODELS
FLUIDS
INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OIL SATURATION
OIL WELLS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PERMEABILITY
PHYSICS
PLANNING
POROUS MATERIALS
RESERVOIR ROCK
SATURATION
STIMULATION
TESTING
WATER SATURATION
WELL DRILLING
WELL STIMULATION
WELLS