Print Email Facebook Twitter Effect of Permeability on Implicit-Texture Foam Model Parameters and the Limiting Capillary Pressure Title Effect of Permeability on Implicit-Texture Foam Model Parameters and the Limiting Capillary Pressure Author Farajzadeh, R. Lotfollahi, M. Eftekhari, A.A. Rossen, W.R. Hirasaki, G.J.H. Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Geoscience & Engineering Date 2015-04-21 Abstract Accurate modeling of foam rheology on the field scale requires detailed understanding of the correlation between the fundamental properties of foam and the scalable parameters of the porous medium. It has been experimentally observed that foam experiences an abrupt coalescence when the capillary pressure in the porous medium approaches a certain value referred to as the “limiting capillary pressure”, Pc*. Current foam models that treat foam texture implicitly mimic this fundamental behavior with a so-called dry-out function, which contains adjustable parameters like fmdry and epdry (in the STARS foam simulator). Parameter fmdry (called Sw* in other models) represents the water saturation corresponding to the limiting capillary pressure, Pc*, and epdry determines the abruptness of foam coalescence as a function of water saturation. In this paper, using experimental data, we examine the permeability dependence of these parameters. We find that the value of fmdry decreases with increasing permeability. We also find that, for the data examined in this paper, the transition from the high-quality regime to low-quality regime is more abrupt in lower-permeability rocks. This implies that in high-permeability rocks foam might not collapse abruptly at a single water saturation; instead, there is a range of water saturation over which foam weakens. In addition, we address the question of whether Pc* is dependent on formation permeability. We estimate Pc* from data for foam mobility versus foam quality and find, as did Khatib et al. (SPE Reservoir Eng., 1988, 3 (3), 919–926), who introduced the limiting capillary pressure concept, that Pc* can vary with permeability. It increases as permeability decreases, but not enough to reverse the trend of increasing foam apparent viscosity as permeability increases. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d05d6cbc-4121-4fe1-9a8d-8a59fd8ca466 Publisher American Chemical Society Embargo date 2016-04-21 ISSN 0887-0624 Source Energy Fuels, 29 (5), 2015; Authors version (post print) Other version https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b00248 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2015 American Chemical Society Files PDF 2015_Rouhi_eff_of_k_on_fm ... yFuels.pdf 893.73 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:d05d6cbc-4121-4fe1-9a8d-8a59fd8ca466/datastream/OBJ/view