A Generalized Capillary Imbibition Model for Porous Media in Tight Reservoirs

Abstract

Capillary imbibition models have been widely studied in oil and gas development field over the past decades. However, the existing models applied to the tight reservoirs rarely take fluid flow resistance and apparent viscosity into account. To investigate the capillary imbibition characteristics of fluids in tight porous media, a generalized capillary imbibition model considering the flow resistance and apparent viscosity of fluids in tight porous media is derived. By comparing with the results of other capillary imbibition models and experimental data, the derived capillary imbibition model is verified. In addition, compared with the conventional capillary imbibition models, the derived capillary imbibition model is more consistent with the experimental results and has a wider applicability. The imbibition distance of water in tight reservoirs can also be obtained using the derived capillary imbibition model, which will facilitate the study on water injection development in tight oil and gas reservoirs.