Institut Francais Du Pe'trole

Gaz De France

Francois Kalaydjian

Jean-Claude Moulu

Patrick Egermann

Christian Deruyter

Olga Vizika

Christophe Requin

Laurent Dallet

Olga Vizika-Kavvadias

The invention is used to manufacture an inhomogeneous medium whose porosity and permeability undergo rapid transitions from one point to another of its volume, by juxtaposing different materials without creating a barrier. Such a transition is made by juxtaposing a first material and a second material with a different porosity to the first. One of them can be a rock sample such as sandstone for example, the other can be a composite material obtained by agglomerating pyrex powder for example, the whole being heated according to a specific temperature cycle up to a temperature (TR) lower than the melting point of the two materials but sufficient to achieve partial melting of one of the materials at the interface with the other material, but without formation of a continuous or discontinuous capillary barrier between them, or an interzone with preferred passage for fluids. Thus, different composite materials can be juxtaposed to constitute the inhomogeneous medium. The invention has applications to manufacturing a model representative of reservoir rocks in order to test assisted hydrocarbon recovery methods.

Method of manufacturing a porous inhomogeneous material

Modelling method for optimizing faster and more realistically the displacement conditions, in a porous medium wettable by a first fluid (water for example), of a mixture of fluids including this wetting fluid and at least another fluid (oil and possibly gas). The method comprises experimental determination of the variation curve of the capillary pressure in the pores as a function of the saturation in the liquid phases, modelling the pores of the porous medium by means of a distribution of capillaries with a fractal section while considering, in the case of a three-phase water (wetting fluid)-oil-gas mixture for example, a stratification of the constituents in the pores, with the water in contact with the walls, the gas in the center and the oil forming an intercalary layer, determination, from this capillary pressure curve, of the fractal dimension values corresponding to a series of given values of the saturation in the liquid phase, modelling the relative permeabilities directly in the form of analytic expressions depending on the various fractal dimension values obtained and in accordance with the stratified distribution of the various fluids in the pores, and using a porous medium simulator in order to determine, from the relative permeabilities, the optimum displacement conditions of the fluids in the porous medium. The method can be applied for petroleum production, soil depollution, etc.

Method for modeling fluid displacements in a porous medium

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Rueil-Malmaison, France

Francois Kalaydjian