Flow and displacement of Bingham non-Newtonian fluids in porous media.

摘要

There is considerable evidence that the flow of heavy oil in some reservoirs is non-Newtonian and that this behavior can be approximated by a Bingham type fluid. Investigations in the Laboratory and in a few field tests have shown a behavior that is characteristic of a Bingham fluid; the flow of the heavy oil takes place only after the applied pressure gradient exceeds a certain minimum value. At present, there is no reliable method of analyzing pressure buildup data from well tests where the reservoir contains a Bingham oil. This work presents a theoretical study of the flow and displacement of a Bingham type fluid in porous media. An integral method of analyzing the single phase flow of this type of fluid has been developed. An approximate analytical solution has been obtained for transient flow problems, and its accuracy is confirmed by comparison with numerical solutions. The flow behavior of a slightly-compressible Bingham fluid is discussed, and a new method of well test analysis has been developed by using the integral solution. To obtain some understanding of the physics of immiscible displacement with Bingham fluids, a Buckley-Leverett type analytical solution with a practical graphic evaluation method has been developed and applied to the problem of displacing a Bingham-type fluid by water. 34 refs., 15 figs.