Fluid Flow in Porous Media

Course description

This course is designed for post-graduate (MSc and PhD) students, focus on investigation of multi-phase flow in the reservoir rock as porous media.  The main syllabus of this course are:

1. Rock properties: Relation between Porosity and permeability, rock typing (hydraulic flow units).
2. Rock-fluid properties (relative permeability: k_r and capillary pressure: P_c as saturation function):  empirical correlations, three-phase flow, interfacial tension and wettability effect, hysteresis in k_r and P_c, trapping mechanism and modelling.
3. Immiscible displacement in porous media (fractional flow theory)
4. Diffusion and dispersion in porous media: The convection-dispersion equation in porous media
5. Up-scaling: The concepts as well as challenges in up scaling are presented then the up scaling of single phase rock properties (porosity and permeability) from course grid to fine grid are demonstrated. The various up scaling methodology for k_r and P_c are presented.

References

1. Petrophysics, Ekwere J. Peters,
2. Petrophysics: theory and practice of measuring reservoir rock and fluid transport properties, Djebbar Tiab and Erle C. Donaldson
3. F. A.L. Dullien - Porous Media – Fluid Transport and Pore Structure
4. R.E. Collins / Flow of Fluids through Porous materials (REC Publishers 1991)
5. Computational Method for Multiphase flows in porous media, Zhangxin Chen, Guanren Huan, Yuanle Ma, 2006
6. Fluid flow in porous media, E. Heinemann, 2005

Mark distribution

• Assignments and project: 30%
• Class Activities: 15%
• Mid-term exam: 25%
• Final Exam: 30%