FLUID FLOW
SHEET 2
ALI ALGHOL
Radial flow
1. Radial flow for incompressible fluid (steady state):
In radial flow, all fluids move toward the producing well from all
directions.
If a well is to produce oil, which means a fluid flow of through the formation to
the wellbore, the pressure at the wellbore must be less than the pressure at any
other point in the formation. The pressure at the wellbore is known as the bottom-
hole flowing pressure ( pwf).
Consider from the figure a sample of radial flow of an incompressible
fluid toward a vertical well. The formation is considered to a uniform
thickness h and a constant permeability K. The flow rate q must be
constant at all radial. Pwf represent the bottom-hole flowing pressure at
the wellbore radius rw and Pe the external pressure at the external radius.
From darcy’s Eq, the flow rate can be determined at any radius.
The flow rate of crude oil system (STB)
q= Bo Qo
In radial flow, P2 = Pe, P1= Pwf, r2= re and r1 = rw
Where:
Qo = Oil flow rate STB/day
Pe = External pressure psi
Pwf = Bottom hole flowing pressure psi
K= Permeability md
𝜇 = Oil viscosity
Bo = Oil formation volume factor
h= Thickness ft
re = External radius ft
rw = Wellbore radius ft
The external radius is usually determined from the following equation:
2. Radial flow for slightly compressible fluid flow (steady-state)
It is expressed again the volume dependence on pressure for the slightly
compressible fluid. The equation is substituted in a radial form darcy
law to become:
Separating the variables and assuming a constant compressibility over
the entire pressure drop:
Or:
!.!!#!$ & ' , - . (01 2 03)
qr= !" 𝑙𝑛 , - . (01 2 05)
( ) *+
!#
3. Radial flow of compressible fluid flow (steady state):
The flow of gas at any radius (r) may be expressed in term of flow in
standard cubic feet per day by:
Substituting in radial flow of darcy’s law:
After separating the variables and rearranging, the fluid flow form is as
follows:
Capillary Pressure
The capillary forces in a petroleum reservoir are the result of the
combined effect of the surface and interfacial tensions of the rock and
fluids, the pore size and geometry, and the wetting characteristics of the
system.
This happens whether the fluids are oil and water, water and gas (even
air), or oil and gas. When two immiscible fluids are in contact, a
discontinuity in pressure exists between the two fluids. We call this
pressure difference the capillary pressure.
Expressing the pressure in the wetting fluid by Pw and that in the non-
wetting fluid by Pnw, the capillary pressure can be expressed as:
Capillary pressure = (pressure of the nonwetting phase) - (pressure
of the wetting phase).
Pc = Pnw - Pw
The pressure of the nonwetting fluid is the capillary pressure, and this
quantity is a function of saturation .
There are three types of capillary pressure:
• Water-oil capillary pressure ( Pcwo)
• Gas-oil capillary pressure (Pcgo)
• Gas-water capillary pressure (Pcgw)
Applying the mathematical definition of the capillary pressure, the three
types of capillary pressure can be written as:
• Pcwo = Po - Pw
• Pcgo= Pg – Po
• Pcgw= Pg - Pw
1. The pressure across the interface between point 1 and point 2 is
capillary pressure:
Pc = P1 – P2
2. The pressure of water at point 2 is equal to the pressure at 4 minus the
head of the water
P2= P4 – g h 𝜌
The final equation of Pc is
!
Pc = ∆𝜌
"##
Pc = capillary pressure psi
h= capillary rise ft.
∆𝜌 = 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 lb/ft3
In the case of an oil-water system, the previous Equation can be written
as:
Pc = g h ((𝜌𝑤 − 𝜌𝑜) = g h ∆𝜌
The capillary pressure equation can be expressed by the surface and
interfacial tension.
Surface tension (ST) is the interaction between gas and liquid while the
interfacial tension (IFT) is the interface between two liquids (i.e, Oil and
water).
• Gas-liquid system
And
Where:
𝜌𝑤 = water density, (g/cm3).
𝜌𝑔 = gas density.
𝜎gw = gas – water surface tension (dynes/cm).
r = capillary radius (cm).
𝜃 = contact angel.
h = capillary rise (cm).
g = acceleration due to gravity (cm/sec2).
Pc = capillary pressure (dynes/cm2).
• Oil-water system
And,
𝜎ow = oil – water Interfacial tension (dynes/cm).
Example:
Calculate the capillary pressure, and capillary rise in an oil-water system
from the following data:
q = 30° 𝜌w = 1.0 gm/cm3 𝜌o = 0.75 gm/cm3 r = 10-4 cm 𝜎ow = 25
dynes/cm
Wettability and Capillary Pressure
The exploitation of hydrocarbons is a complex process of controlling
interactions in systems involving crude oil, water, gas and rock
formations. In this complicated systems, it is important to understand
the effect of the surface properties of oil/rock, water/rock and the
interface oil/water. The main property to understand is the surface or
interfacial tension
• Surface and Interfacial Tension
An interface is known as the boundary region between two adjacent
bulk phases. It can be:-
• Liquid – gas (LG).
• Liquid – liquid (LL).
• Liquid – solid (LS).
• Solid – gas (SG).
Gases are basically miscible and thus, no interfacial tension is
observed between gases. Any surface that is in the state of lateral
tension, leads to the concept of surface tension. If two fluids, (for
example: water and oil) are forming an interface, the molecules
attached to the oil-water interface have less kinetic energy than the
bulk molecules.
The surface tension between any liquid and its vapour phase is usually
in the range of 10 to 80 mN/m.
