Pore-throat size correlation from capillary pressure curves

✍ Scribed by N. C. Wardlaw; Y. Li; D. Forbes

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 973 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0169-3913
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00192157

✦ Synopsis

Void spaces in porous media can be considered as three-dimensional networks consisting of bulges (pores) connected by constrictions (throats). Computer simulations of drainage-imbibition processes show that the critical end points of wetting-phase and nonwetting-phase saturation, in drainage and imbibition respectively, and the form of simulated relative permeability curves all were significantly different for uncorrelated and correlated pore-throat models. Since these models were identical except for the arrangement of throats in relation to pores, the degree of pore-throat size correlation appears to be an important property influencing flow and fluid displacement. Examples of uncorrelated and correlated pore-throat structures in rocks are presented and it is shown that this property, although difficult to quantify by direct observation, can be evaluated from capillary pressure curves.