A NOVEL FRACTAL MODEL FOR TWO-PHASE RELATIVE PERMEABILITY IN POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

Multiphase flow in porous media is very important in various scientific and engineering fields. It has been shown that relative permeability plays an important role in determination of flow characteristics for multiphase flow. The accurate prediction of multiphase flow in porous media is hence highly important. In this work, a novel predictive model for relative permeability in porous media is developed based on the fractal theory. The predictions of two-phase relative permeability by the current mathematical models have been validated by comparing with available experimental data. The predictions by the proposed model show the same variation trend with the available experimental data and are in good agreement with the existing experiments. Every parameter in the proposed model has clear physical meaning. The proposed relative permeability is expressed as a function of the immobile liquid film thickness, pore structural parameters (pore fractal dimension Dfand tortuosity fractal dimension DT) and fluid viscosity ratio. The effects of these parameters on relative permeability of porous media are discussed in detail.