Abstract
AbstractWe measure the pressure difference during two‐phase flow across a sandstone sample for a range of injection rates and fractional flows of water, the wetting phase, during an imbibition experiment. We quantify the onset of a transition from a linear relationship between flow rate and pressure gradient to a nonlinear power‐law dependence. We show that the transition from linear (Darcy) to nonlinear flow and the exponent in the power‐law is a function of fractional flow. We use energy balance to accurately predict the onset of intermittency for a range of fractional flows, fluid viscosities, and different rock types.
Highlights
We measure the pressure difference during two-phase flow across a sandstone sample for a range of injection rates and fractional flows of water, the wetting phase, during an imbibition experiment
− krpK μp where qp is the volume of phase p flowing per unit area per unit time, krp is the relative permeability, K is the absolute permeability, μp is the viscosity, ∇Pp is the pressure gradient and ρpg is the contribution of gravity
We study steady-state immiscible twophase flow through a water-wet Bentheimer sandstone sample with different flow rates and fractional flows during an imbibition displacement
Summary
We measure the pressure difference during two-phase flow across a sandstone sample for a range of injection rates and fractional flows of water, the wetting phase, during an imbibition experiment. Gao et al [21] quantified the threshold capillary number for the onset of intermittency Cai as approximately 10−5 and found a = 0.6 from experiments of steady-state flow on water-wet Bentheimer sandstone for fw = 0.5; there were only eight data points.
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