Two-Phase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media: Large-Scale Capillary Pressure and Permeability Determination

Abstract

In this paper we present an analysis of two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media by the method of large-scale averaging, and a comparison of the theoretical results provided by this method with experimental data for flow in a stratified porous medium. We performed experiments of waterflooding on a stratified porous medium with a flow parallel to the strata. The saturation field was measured by gamma-ray absorption and the results were compared with a numerical solution of the large-scale averaged equations. The large-scale permeability tensors and the large-scale capillary pressure were determined theoretically by the resolution of the closure problem. The entire theoretical analysis was restricted by the quasi-static condition; however, we have recently extended the quasi-static analysis to obtain a theory that is capable of capturing many of the dynamic effects that influence two-phase flow in heterogeneous media (Quintard and Whitaker, l990a and 1990b).