Image-based simulation of formation damage during suspension injection in homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media: The impact of pore-scale characteristics on macroscopic properties

Abstract

Solid invasion into the near wellbore region could be considered as the main mechanism of formation damage during drilling and completion operations. This challenge could be alleviated, to a high extent, with the correct size tailoring of the solid particle in the intruding fluids. This requires a better understanding of the effect of some pore scale properties of formation rocks on macroscopic properties. In this study, the capability of the X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) technique was utilized to relate the local morphological and topological characteristics of porous media to macroscopic hydraulic properties. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous samples were considered and the damage was induced by injecting particulate fluid of poly-dispersed solid particles. The spatial variation of porosity, permeability, pore size distribution, throat size distribution, and sectional damage ratio evaluated before and after the induced damage in these samples. The results for homogeneous sample showed that the damage distribution does not follow a uniform pattern and it strongly depends on the structure of the pores in each section of the sample. As for heterogeneous sample, a wide range of damage ratios from nearly 90% in the coarse layer to 16% in the fine layer was observed. The longitudinal damage in each layer corresponds well with one-third to one-seventh of throat size at each subsection. Compared to homogeneous sample, the size exclusion effect is more evident in heterogeneous sample in which most of the damage happens near to the inlet face.