Patent ID: 6021662
Filing Date: 2000-02-08
Classification: E21B,G01N

Abstract:
A modelling method for optimizing displacement conditions, in a porous medium wettable by a first liquid, of a mixture of two-phase or three-phase fluids including the first wetting liquid and a second non-wetting liquid, comprising:experimentally determining a variation curve of the capillary pressure (P.sub.C) in pores of a sample of said porous medium in presence of the wetting liquid and the non-wetting liquid;modelling pores of the porous medium by a distribution of capillaries with a fractal section while considering a stratified distribution of the fluids in the mixture in the pores, the wetting spreading out in contact with walls of the pores and around said another fluid;determining, from said capillary pressure curve, fractal dimension values corresponding to a series of given values of saturation of the sample in the liquids;modelling relative permeabilities directly in the form of analytic expressions depending on the different fractal dimension values obtained, andfeeding the relative permeabilities into a porous medium simulator and determining, by means of said simulator, optimum displacement conditions for the mixture of fluids in the porous medium.