Enhancement of Steam Phase Relative Permeability Due to Phase Transformation Effects in Porous Media

摘要

An experimental study of two-phase concurrent flow of steam and water was conducted and a set of relative permeability curves was obtained. These curves were compared with semi-empirical results and experimental results obtained by other investigators for two-phase, two-component flow (oil/gas; gas/water; gas/oil). It was found that while the wetting phase relative permeabilities were in good agreement, the relative permeability for the steam phase was considerably higher than the relative permeabilities of non-wetting phase (oil/water and non-condensing gas in gas/oil or gas/water) in two-component systems. This enhancement of steam relative permeability is attributed to phase transformation effects at the pore level in flow channels. (ERA citation 11:040271)