Flow and displacement of Bingham non-Newtonian fluids in porous media
There is considerable evidence that the flow of heavy oil in some reservoirs is non-Newtonian and that this behavior can be approximated by a Bingham type fluid. Investigations in the Laboratory and in a few field tests have shown a behavior that is characteristic of a Bingham fluid; the flow of the heavy oil takes place only after the applied pressure gradient exceeds a certain minimum value. At present, there is no reliable method of analyzing pressure buildup data from well tests where the reservoir contains a Bingham oil. This work presents a theoretical study of the flow and displacement of a Bingham type fluid in porous media. An integral method of analyzing the single phase flow of this type of fluid has been developed. An approximate analytical solution has been obtained for transient flow problems, and its accuracy is confirmed by comparison with numerical solutions. The flow behavior of a slightly-compressible Bingham fluid is discussed, and a new method of well test analysis has been developed by using the integral solution. To obtain some understanding of the physics of immiscible displacement with Bingham fluids, a Buckley-Leverett type analytical solution with a practical graphic evaluation method has been developed and applied to the problem of displacing a Bingham-type fluid by water. 34 refs., 15 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/ER
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 7081417
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-28340; CONF-9004156-1; ON: DE90009060
- Resource Relation:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 03; Conference: 1990 SPE California regional meeting, Ventura, CA (USA), 4-6 Apr 1990
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
FLUID FLOW
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PETROLEUM
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
FIELD TESTS
FRACTURING FLUIDS
GROUND WATER
PHASE STUDIES
POROUS MATERIALS
VISCOSITY
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
TESTING
WATER
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production