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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
Displacement
Patterns: An Experimental Study1
1Manuscript received December 19, 1997; revised manuscript received October 19,
1998; final acceptance June 28, 1999.
2Department of Geosystem Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan; e-mail: tokunaga@geosys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
Modeling secondary migration of oil currently is difficult because the physics
governing the movement is complex and information on heterogeneity of carrier beds is
always incomplete. To better understand the basic physical process of secondary migration,
we discuss displacement
patterns based on relative magnitudes among buoyancy, interfacial,
and viscous forces using the results of one-dimensional vertical oil-water
displacement
experiments. Oil was injected at a constant rate from the lower inlet of a glass tube
packed with sorted glass beads. The injection pressure and oil outflow rate were measured
while we observed the
displacement
pattern. Runs were done using different grain sizes and
injection rates.
Two displacement
patterns were recognized during the experiments: type A consisted of
stable, piston-like
displacement
and type B consisted of capillary fingering. The
difference coincided with the relative magnitudes of the driving forces, which can be
characterized by the dimensionless modified Bond (Bo') and Capillary (Ca)
numbers. Type A pattern was produced for high Ca/Bo' ratios and type B pattern
for low Ca/Bo' ratios. A flow regime diagram showing the regions of the two
displacement
patterns was constructed in Ca/Bo' space, including the effects of
gravity. Our results also showed that excess pressure for the nonwetting phase fluid to
intrude into a porous medium was rate dependent.
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