The effect of microporosity on transport properties in porous media |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, United States;2. Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, United States;1. School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK;2. School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Sizeable amounts of connected microporosity with various origins can have a profound effect on important petrophysical properties of a porous medium such as (absolute/relative) permeability and capillary pressure relationships. We construct pore-throat networks that incorporate both intergranular porosity and microporosity. The latter originates from two separate mechanisms: partial dissolution of grains and pore fillings (e.g. clay). We then use the reconstructed network models to estimate the medium flow properties. In this work, we develop unique network construction algorithms and simulate capillary pressure–saturation and relative permeability–saturation curves for cases with inhomogeneous distributions of pores and micropores. Furthermore, we provide a modeling framework for variable amounts of cement and connectivity of the intergranular porosity and quantifying the conditions under which microporosity dominates transport properties. In the extreme case of a disconnected inter-granular network due to cementation a range of saturations within which neither fluid phase is capable of flowing emerges. To our knowledge, this is the first flexible pore scale model, from first principles, to successfully approach this behavior observed in tight reservoirs. |
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| Keywords: | Porous media Multiphase flow Relative permeability Two-scale network Flow model Microporosity |
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