Wettability Index for Reservoir Simulation and History Matching Core Displacement Experiments

Abstract

A fully coupled formulation for three-phase capillary pressure and relative permeability, the flow parameters, with hysteresis and miscibility capabilities have been established. This work presents an extension to this formulation where wettability index associated the gridblocks has been added to the formulation. Also added to the model are analytical expressions of the two-phase flow parameters. Network generated model has been constructed of the core material and flow parameters have been established by numerical simulation. This technology is now reaching a level of maturity where predictability of core displacement experiments is within reach. The generation of flow parameters requires information of the wetting conditions. However, if the wetting condition is uncertain, flow parameters can easily be generated having different wettability once the pore space has been reconstructed. This work also presents simulation results of core displacement experiments having non water-wet condition, and applies flow parameters generated through network modeling at different wetting conditions. The recovery curves from the displacement experiments are history matched by altering the wettability index. Discussions are given, with illustrations.