SPE 92133
Microvisual Analysis of Matrix-Fracture Interaction
Edgar R. Rangel-German, SPE, Pemex-UNAM, and Anthony R. Kovscek, SPE, Department of Petroleum Engineering,
Stanford University
Copyright 2004, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2004 SPE International Petroleum Conference
in Mexico held in Puebla, Mexico, 8–9 November 2004.
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Abstract
A micromodel employing a two-dimensional representation of
the pore space of a fractured sandstone was used to investigate
matrix-fracture interactions and water imbibition into the
matrix. Pore-level mechanisms of wetting and nonwetting
fluid flow are observed directly with a microscope.
The rate of water flow through fractures is shown to be
relevant to displacement at the pore level. A “filling-fracture”
regime is marked by relatively slow flow of water through
fractures, rapid fluid transfer from the fracture to the matrix,
imbibition that is microscopically cocurrent, and recovery of
the nonwetting phase that scales linearly with time. On the
other hand, a “filled fracture” regime is noted when fractures
fill relatively quickly with water and recovery scales with the
square root of time. Additionally, imbibition is found to be
microscopically countercurrent. Within a single field of view,
some pores are responsible for the uptake of water while
immediately adjacent pores expel nonwetting phase into the
fracture. The cocurrent flow mode in the filling fracture
regime was more efficient with respect to recovery of the
nonwetting phase versus the volume of water injected.
Wetting and nonwetting fluids flowed simultaneously in
both the fractures and the matrix. These observations provide
insight into the discrepancies among fracture relative
permeability curves presented in the literature. It is suggested
that fracture relative permeability is sensitive to the total fluid
velocity within fractures and the rate of uptake of water by the
matrix.
Introduction
Understanding and modeling flow behavior in naturally
fractured rocks, including oil and gas reservoirs, geothermal
reservoirs, and environmental sites requires a detailed analysis
of these systems at various length scales. To understand how
fluids communicate between the high conductivity fracture
and the lower conductivity matrix requires both pore- and
core- scale analysis of the problem. Several experiments have
focused on matrix-fracture interaction and in-situ imaging at
the core-scale.1,2 Rangel-German1 described experiments
exploring matrix-fracture interaction in water-wet media
covering a wide range of fracture apertures and flow rates.
Two imbibition regimes are reported: filling- and instantly-
filled fractures. Whereas the mode of imbibition is
macroscopically counter-current within the instantly-filled
regime, imbibition may be co-current while the fractures fill
with water relatively slowly. Co-current imbibition represents,
apparently, a more efficient displacement mode than counter-
current imbibition.1-3
In this work, micromodels are used to understand better
the physics of matrix-fracture transfer. Micromodels are two-
dimensional networks of pores and constrictions that simulate
some of the complexities of natural porous media. A
micromodel and micromodel holder were fabricated that
mimic, macroscopically speaking, the set-up used in core-
scale experiments described previously1. The micromodel
apparatus allows observation of water advance in the fracture
and the pattern, extent, and mode of imbibition in the matrix at
the pore scale.
It is hypothesized that the filling-fracture regime is
controlled by co-current imbibition, whereas the filled-fracture
regime is controlled by counter-current imbibition. The
objective of this paper is to prove the hypotheses at the pore
scale and to observe the expulsion of non-wetting fluid from a
matrix-block to a fracture. Some speculate that the mechanism
of water uptake by the matrix occurs by cocurrent flow within
individual pores, whereas others believe that wetting fluid
imbibes in a set of pores or channels and non-wetting fluid is
expelled by a different set of pores. An additional objective is,
thus, to end such speculation via definitive experiments.
Micromodel Equipment
Micromodels allow direct pore-scale observation of
multiphase flow through porous media. They contain an
etched flow pattern that is viewed with a microscope. The
flow pattern is virtually anything that can be etched onto glass
or silicon. One limitation that is inherent to all micromodels is
that they are only two-dimensional.4 Extrapolation of results to
three-dimensional flow must be done carefully. Micromodels,
however, provide the best means to visualize fluid movement
at the pore scale while honoring both geometric and topologic
properties of real rocks. A detailed literature review is
provided by Buckley5.
2 SPE 92133
Etched-silicon-wafer micromodels of the type described by
Sagar and Castanier6, initially developed by Hornbrook et al.7,
were used. They contain a repeated pattern obtained from an
SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) image of a rock thin
section, as shown in Fig. 1 for Berea sandstone. These
micromodels offer 1:1 size scaling of typical sandstone pores.
Note the grains appear as islands and the etched pores and
throats as channels. The etch depth is 25 µm and grains range
in size from 30 to 200 µm, Fig. 2a. The porosity is roughly 0.2
and the permeability is approximately 500 mD. The total
network dimension is 5-cm square, as shown in Fig. 2b. Such
micromodels have been used to study multi-phase flow, oil-
foam interaction, solution gas drive, and contaminant
hydrogeology.1,4-6
These micromodels contain some modifications as
compared to those used previously4,6: narrow etched channels
adjacent to the edges of the pore network carry fluid to the
inlet/outlet ports. These channels allow fluid to enter and exit
the porous medium at any point along the side of the pore
network, Fig. 2b, similar to a fracture. Holes are drilled
directly into the silicon wafer at each corner of the
micromodel providing locations for fluid exit and entry into
the “fractures”.
Micromodels were fabricated at the Stanford
Nanofabrication Facility (SNF). There are two main steps in
their construction: fabrication and anodic bonding. Fabrication
starts with the design and construction of a mask. The mask is
placed on a silicon wafer previously coated with a
photosensitive chemical. The pattern of the mask is impressed
on the wafer by means of passing ultraviolet light through the
mask. The silicon wafer is developed and later etched with
hydrofluoric acid (HF) to a depth of around 25-30 µm. In this
way pore cavities are created.
The silicon wafer with the etched pattern is cleaned in a
sulfuric acid (H2SO4) cleaning solution (NOCHROMIX,
Godax Laboratories) air dried, and then bonded to a glass plate
to create a two-dimensional porous medium. The procedure
for bonding is simple, yet extremely important. Firstly, the
cleaned micromodel is placed with the pattern facing up on a
pre-heated hotplate at 600° F. This hotplate is connected to
one of the electrodes (anode) of a power supply. The
micromodel is left on the plate for around 45 minutes. During
this step the silicon is oxidized resulting in the formation of a
solid film of silicon dioxide that is water wetting. The
temperature is then reduced to 500° F. After the hotplate
temperature has stabilized, a clean glass plate (cleaned with
soap solution, then sulfuric acid solution, and then air dried) is
placed on the micromodel. The other electrode (cathode) is
placed on the top of the plate and the voltage on the power
supply is brought to 1000Volts. After 50 minutes, bonding is
achieved. The electricity is turned off and the new micromodel
is allowed to cool to room temperature.
Micromodel Holder.
A holder to mount the micromodels for unobstructed viewing
under the microscope was specially designed, Fig. 3. This
aluminum (6061 T6) micromodel holder has conduits
connected to the injection and production systems. There are
four ports (one for each hole of the micromodel) that are
sealed with viton O-rings, Fig. 3.
Imaging System. A Nikon Optiphot-M reflected light
microscope with a photo tube allowing for video imaging was
used to view fluid movement. Because the silicon
micromodels are opaque, an internal light source sends light
through the objective lens to illuminate the micromodel.
Generally, 50X magnification was used to track the motion of
the fluids in the micromodel. Greater magnification, 100X and
200X, used to focus on a few pores.
A video camera (TMC-7RGB, PULNiX) connected to a
standard video cassette recorder (VCR) was used to record
events at a speed of 30 frames per second. Then selected
images from the VCR were transferred to a Macintosh/PC
computer system with the aid of imaging video/recording
software. A commercial home-video digital camera provided a
second imaging device to obtain images of the entire
micromodel (macro-scale) at different stages of the
experiments. In these pictures the pattern and extent of
imbibition in the entire micromodel was observed.
Pump, Filter and Fluids. An ISCO 100DM syringe pump
(Instrumentation Specialties Co.) was used to deliver water or
oil to the micromodel. This pump is accurate to exceptionally
low flow rates; i.e. 0.001 cm3/min to 0.0001 cm3/min. A
Swagelock filter with a 2-micron cartridge was used to filter
out any small particles that might clog the micromodels. The
properties of the fluids used in the experiments are shown in
Table 1.
Experimental Procedure.
Constant water injection rates into the fracture were set at two
values: one low and one high relative to the micromodel
(0.001 cc/min and 0.01 cc/min). The fracture aperture was
constant in depth and width as per the fabrication etching. This
system mimics length, width, and approximate fracture
aperture of the core scale set-up used with the CT Scanner to
image in situ saturation reported in Ref.1. We performed
experiments similar to those at the core-scale trying to achieve
filling-fracture and instantly-filled fracture regimes using the
low and high flow rates, respectively. For reference, Figs. 3.5,
3.6, 3.7 and 3.9 in Ref. 1 display typical core CT experiment
results.
For the experiments reported here, water was injected on
the left at constant rate and oil and water produced from the
right-hand side. The intent was uniform advance of water
along the fracture. We performed experiments with water and
air, water and CO2, oil and CO2, and water and oil. In the case
of experiments with oil, CO2 was first injected into the system
to displace any gas and this was followed with oil. The CO2 is
relatively soluble in oil and the combination allowed the
micromodels to be fully saturated with oil.
Experimental Results.
Following the aforementioned procedure, experiments were
conducted to achieve filling-fracture and instantly-filled
fracture regimes using low and high injection rates,
respectively.
SPE 92133
“Filling-Fracture” Regime
This regime exhibits a variable length source to the matrix due
to relatively slow water flow through fractures. Water advance
is controlled by the interaction between the matrix and the
fracture. Figure 4 shows the images obtained of the entire
micromodel for different times for the air-water system.
Water is darkly shaded and reaches the end of the fracture at
49 min. The imbibition pattern is two-dimensional.
The micromodel experiments allowed us to visualize the
mechanism by which non-wetting fluid is expelled from the
pore structure. The images are not completely suitable for
quantitative analysis because the micromodel has to be moved
to observe different regions of space at high magnification.
Nevertheless, the whole-micromodel images in Fig. 4 show a
diffuse elliptic pattern of water in the matrix as the water
advances in the fracture. The water advance in either direction
(x and y) is proportional to the square-root of time but with a
different proportionality constant. Correspondingly, the total
water uptake is linearly proportional to time. These
observations compare well with the core-scale experiments
described in Ref 1. Once the water in the fracture reaches the
outlet (right hand side), the imbibition regime changes to a
“filled” fracture and behaves in a one-dimensional mode.
Figure 5 shows a series of pictures obtained near the
matrix-fracture interface close to the inlet. A significant
amount of water has imbibed into the matrix; air is not trapped
or by-passed to a sizeable extent. Air, at the pore level, moves
cocurrently relative to the water. That is, the wetting and
nonwetting phases generally flow in the same direction. Note
that bubbles of non-wetting fluid are not seen in the filled
portion of the fracture and the nonwetting phase is expulsed
downstream of the leading edge of the water front in the
fracture. It is apparent that when water advances slowly,
sweep of the non-wetting phase from the matrix is excellent.
This stage of the experiment is almost completely capillary
driven because the viscous forces are quite small (air presents
little resistance to flow) and the micromodel is in a horizontal
position.
Figure 6 shows a sequence of images of the filling of a
section of the fracture close to the outlet. No air is expelled in
the region covered by water but a small amount of air seems to
be trapped close to the outlet. As expected, the meniscus is not
perfectly hemispherical. This is because of the different media
(matrix and fracture) on each side. It is apparent that the
macroscopic contact angle of the meniscus varies as it goes
through big or small pores in the matrix; for instance see the
second and tenth images. The microscopic contact angle is
sensibly zero. When water goes through large pores, as in the
images in the first row of Fig. 6 (images 1 to 4), it slows down
with respect to the water level next to the fracture (bottom part
of micromodel), but it catches up when passing through small
pores (images 9 to 12). The water front in the matrix is a few
pores ahead of that in the fracture as seen in all of the images
in Fig. 6.
Figure 7 illustrates images of the water advance in the
matrix in the direction perpendicular to the fracture. The water
front has advanced further on the left than it has on the right in
all views. Dashed (blue) and solid (green) lines indicate the
water advance in the matrix. Figs. 4 and 7 illustrate that there
is an elliptical imbibition pattern in the matrix. These
3
observations lend support to the assumption of a linear
superposition of one-dimensional solutions of the diffusion
equation proposed elsewhere.2
When the water reaches the end of the fracture, the gas in
the micromodel becomes 'encapsulated' between the
boundaries of the micromodel and the almost continuous
water phase next to the fracture, as shown in images after 49
min. in Fig. 4. A competition between capillary forces and
compression of the trapped gas now controls the advance of
the water in the matrix in the direction perpendicular to the
fracture. The water continues advancing until the pressure of
the trapped gas is greater than the capillary entry pressure of
the surrounding pores. The pressure of the trapped gas is
calculated by Boyle's law at constant temperature:
p1V1 = p2 V2 (1)
the volume of the initial gas of the micromodel is calculated as
V1 = φ L W h (2)
where φ is the porosity, L is the length, W is the width and h is
the depth of the porous medium. Substituting the dimensions
of the micromodel in Eq. 2, V1 is 0.015 cm3 and p1 is equal to
1 atm. Thus, using Eq. 1 and a compressed volume of
approximately 60% of the initial volume, gas pressure, pg
(=p2=1atm•0.015cm3/0.009cm3), is approximately 1.7 atm. For
the gas to escape from the micromodel, the following
condition must be matched:
pg ≥ pc,e + pw (3)
where pc,e is the entry pressure of the pore throats in the water-
filled portion porous medium.
Proceed by setting p2 to 1.7 atm (pc,e=p2-p1=0.7 atm), the
surface tension to 72 dyne/cm, and approximate the gas-water
interface in pore throats as spherical:
2γ
pc,e = (4)
r
With these inputs, Eq. (4) is solved for an r of roughly 2.2 µm.
That is gas invades throats as small as 4.4 µm in diameter.
This diameter is less than the average pore throat diameter in
the micromodel and, hence, gas escapes. Moreover, the gas
flows through the largest pores first; hence the channels
observed.
Figure 8 shows the images obtained of the entire
micromodel for an air-water experiment after the water has
reached the end of the fracture and the gas has been
compressed. The bottom images of Fig. 8 were manipulated to
depict more clearly the gas escaping in 'channels' out of the
micromodel; water and gas are shown as white and gray,
respectively.
A similar experiment was performed at this low flow rate
(0.001 cc/min) with CO2 as the gas phase, but having all four
ports open. The behavior of this experiment, during the filling-
fracture regime was almost identical to the previous. After the
water front reached the end of the fracture, the water imbibed
in a one-dimensional direction (perpendicular to the fracture)
displacing the CO2 and displaying a well defined front parallel
to the fracture. In this case, the gas is not trapped (all the ports
are open) so the imbibition continues in a co-current mode. No
channels of nonwetting fluid were seen. The advance of the
4 SPE 92133
front was found to be faster than that of the previous
experiment (gas 'encapsulated') and very little gas was
trapped. These results support the assertion that co-current
imbibition is a more efficient mechanism compared to
counter-current imbibition.1-3
“Instantly Filled” Fracture Regime
In this regime, little water imbibes before the fracture fills
with water. Figure 9 includes the images obtained with the
digital camera of the entire micromodel for different times for
a water-air experiment. It shows that the water advance in the
direction perpendicular to the fracture is nearly one-
dimensional. Another important feature of this type of
displacement is the production of non-wetting fluid through
“channels”. Refer to image labeled 25 min. on Fig. 9, for
instance. An analysis similar to Eqs. 1 to 4 again explains the
origin of channels.
Figure 10 shows microscopic images obtained during the
“instantly-filled fracture" regime focusing on the matrix-
fracture interface. Almost no water imbibes while the fracture
fills. The water fills the fracture very fast and the air becomes
“encapsulated” inside the micromodel; therefore, the non-
wetting fluid is only expelled by imbibition that is both
microscopically and macroscopically countercurrent. Figure
11 shows images of the water advance in the matrix in the
direction perpendicular to the fracture during the “instantly-
filled fracture” regime. The water front has advanced almost
the same distance on the left as it has done on the right. See
the dashed and solid lines indicating the water advance in the
matrix. As it was observed macroscopically in Fig. 9 (and the
CT experiments of Ref. 1), there is a well-defined spreading
front parallel to the surface exposed to the imbibing fluid.
Figure 12 shows the same water advance at 10X
magnification close to the “channels”. There is a large amount
of gas trapped/bypassed by water in these areas. These
channels are not always completely connected throughout the
entire micromodel. They connect and disconnect as the water
advances and displaces air counter-currently.
Experiments similar to the instantly-filled fracture regime
were performed with water displacing CO2 with similar
results. In this case, some of the gas dissolved into the water
during displacement. The trapped gas eventually dissolved
completely and was displaced at the end of this water-CO2
experiment. This was done with the idea of eventually having
a matrix saturated with oil to the irreducible water saturation.
Once the matrix was completely saturated with water, oil was
injected to displace the water.
The last experiment, and the most interesting, was
conducted by injecting water into an oil-filled matrix at
irreducible water saturation. Water was injected at 0.01 cc/min
and little water imbibed while the fracture filled. Water
penetrated the matrix displacing oil by counter-current
imbibition.
Figure 13 shows that the oil is displaced through
"channels" at discrete locations along the fracture. One sees
that blobs of oil grew into the fracture. The oil mobility is
lower than water mobility, so viscous forces in the fracture
cannot move the oil along the fracture. Once the blobs reach
some critical volume, however, they are displaced by the
viscous forces in the fracture at the same speed as the water
As oil blobs grow in the fracture, they block the flow of water
and increase the viscous pressure gradient along the fracture.
This process is intermittent; i.e., a blob grows, it is displaced,
and after some time a new blob starts to grow in the same
location. However no constant periodicity was found.
The behavior of this second regime is similar to that
observed during both counter current and co-current
imbibition experiments in the previously presented CT core-
scale experiments (Ref. 1). These observations support the
work presented by Gautem and Mohanty8 that emphasizes the
importance of fluid velocity in fractures with respect to the
balance of capillary and viscous forces.
Discussion.
The micromodel experiments shed additional light on other
studies of imbibition. Classic experiments on imbibition in
fractured media are presented by Kleppe and Morse9 who
evaluated the effect of injection rate and fracture flow capacity
on the production history and oil recovery from a single
matrix block fractured system. As opposed to the classic
instantaneous immersion (instantly-filled fracture) in water,
Kleppe and Morse9 flooded their cylindrical core surrounded
by a small space around the core (an artificial fracture) at a
constant injection rate. They reported results for injection rates
of 3.3 cm3/min and 35.0 cm3/min, that are commonly referred
to in the literature as the 'low rate' and 'high rate' experiments.
Dutra and Aziz10 presented a diffusion-type theory to model
recovery by capillary imbibition. The main parameter
investigated to model the experiments of Kleppe and Morse9
was the hydraulic diffusivity, Dcw.
An interesting observation is that even though the flow rate
in the low rate case is almost 10 times smaller than that of the
high rate experiment, a plot of the non-wetting fluid produced
versus the water injected shows that the low rate case is more
efficient on a pore volume injected basis.
Following the observations in the micromodel
experiments, a small water injection rate leads to a
displacement by imbibition in a cocurrent mode. Moreover,
for an injection flow rate under or close to the critical rate, as
it seems to be in Kleppe and Morse's9 low rate case, the
advance in the fracture is controlled by the interaction between
the matrix and the fracture. Although in absolute time the
experiment in the low rate case (slow filling-fracture regime)
may take longer than in the high rate case (fast filling and
filled-fracture regime) to achieve a given recovery, it
represents a more efficient displacement in terms of recovery
versus the volume of water injected.
The values for hydraulic diffusivity used by Dutra and
Aziz10 to match the experiments by Kleppe and Morse9
represent a second physical explanation to support the results
of this paper. For the high rate case at early times, the
experiments are well matched by a curve corresponding to a
value of Dcw equal to 1.398 cm2/min. As shown
experimentally, both at core- and pore-scale, the filling-
fracture regime yields more efficient displacement. The
hydraulic diffusivity, therefore, must be larger than that for the
counter-current mode. As the high rate experiment progresses,
the results are better matched by lesser values of hydraulic
diffusivity. This indicates that once the water front in the
fracture has reached the end of the fracture, the recovery
SPE 92133
switches to a counter-current imbibition mode and lower Dcw.
Now, the non-wetting fluid can only be expelled through the
two-phase region, reducing oil recovery efficiency.
On the other hand, low rate cases seem to be independent
of the hydraulic diffusivity. Recovery is only controlled by the
matrix imbibition potential, and as long as there is enough
water injected into the system to match the imbibition rate, the
recovery curve behaves independent of Dcw. Non-wetting
fluid, is produced downstream of the water front through the
single-phase region.
The observations from the micromodel experiments also
suggest that for water-oil systems, the generalized Darcy
model might not be appropriate for flow in filled fractures.
The porous medium approach does not allow the possibility of
‘blobs’ of one phase transported by another continuous phase.
It states that one phase can only move upon establishing a
continuous flow path. Substituting the equation for
permeability of fractures proposed by Witherspoon et al.11:
k f = 84x10 6 w 2f (5)
into Darcy’s law results in the following equation for water
relative permeability in a fracture:
vw
k rwf = −12 µ w (6)
2 dp
wf dx
Eq. 6 shows clearly that different relative permeability
curves result from different pressure gradient in the fracture.
When capillary pressure in the matrix is large relative to the
viscous force in the fracture, oil is expelled into the fracture at
a rate independent of the viscous forces. The velocity of the
water, the oil blob growth, and the roughness of the fracture
wall determine the pressure gradient at which the oil blobs are
pushed downstream; however most numerical reservoir
simulators are written under the assumption of a Darcy flow
model for the fractures. Therefore, specific relative
permeability curves have to be obtained for a given injection
flow rate.
The ‘blob transport’ observed in the water-oil micromodel
experiments suggests that the ‘Equivalent Homogeneous
Flow’ model for fractures as proposed by Fourar et al.12 might
be more appropriate for describing the fracture relative
permeability curves. The homogeneous flow model is based
on pipe flow models to treat two phases as a single
homogeneous phase. Flow rate averaged values are defined for
density, velocity and viscosity. The pressure gradient is
calculated by analogy to flow between rough parallel plates.
The homogeneous flow model, however, has some
drawbacks when modeling flow in fractures connected to
matrices. As observed in the micromodel experiments, new oil
mass is incorporated into the fracture as a result of the water
imbibition into the matrix. Both blob growth and transport
effect the pressure drop along the fracture. Oil is expelled
from specific locations that are not regularly distributed along
the fracture; therefore, the pressure distribution is not linear
along the fracture, and the rate fractions of oil and water are
not constant in time.
5
Relative permeability functions can be X-type, Corey-type
or some other type depending on the interference between
phases1. Results presented here make clear that the matrix-
fracture interaction also affects significantly the shape of such
functions. The interaction with the matrix is strongly related to
the injection flow rate and to a lesser extent to the fracture
aperture, as discussed in the experiments at core- and pore-
scale. Thus, it is expected that the flow behavior in fractures
connected to matrices is much different from pure fracture
flow; and therefore, the curves obtained for pure fracture flow
are not necessarily applicable to fractures interacting with
matrices.
Conclusions
This paper explored hypotheses on the mode of imbibition for
filling- and instantly-filled fracture regimes. Micromodels
were used to achieve detailed visualization of matrix-fracture
interaction, water advance in the fracture and the pattern,
extent, and mode of imbibition in the matrix at the pore scale.
Two different modes of matrix and fracture fill-up found
previously2 were verified and analyzed at the pore-scale. The
”filling-fracture” regime represents a slow advance through
fractures resulting from rapid fluid transfer from the fracture
to the matrix, wide fracture aperture, and/or slow water
injection. Recovery scales linearly with time under this
particular co-current imbibition mode. The "instantly-filled
fracture" regime represents rapid flow through fractures due to
relatively low rates of fracture to matrix transfer, narrow
apertures, and/or high water injection rates. Recovery scales
with the square-root of time in this countercurrent dominated
imbibition mode. Experimentally, cocurrent imbibition was
found to be more efficient than countercurrent.
For a low water injection rate and low viscosity non-
wetting fluid, virtually all of the non-wetting phase saturation
above the residual saturation is expelled from the matrix by
the time water reaches the end of the fracture in roughly
square matrix blocks. Although this filling-fracture regime
may take longer in absolute time than a fast
injection/production rate, it represents a more efficient
displacement in terms of recovery versus volume of water
injected. Reinjection in a fractured reservoir that experienced
early water breakthrough caused by high injection rate is
expensive. When the fractures surrounding blocks are filled by
water, non-wetting fluid from these blocks can only be
produced by the less effective countercurrent imbibition
mechanism.
It was found that the mechanism for the more efficient
displacement within the filling-fracture regime is imbibition in
a microscopically cocurrent mode. Non-wetting fluid remains
relatively continuous through the matrix and fracture systems
as the water front advances.
Because matrix-fracture interaction is controlled by the
injection rate, it is apparent that the relative permeability
relationships for wetting and nonwetting phases are rate
dependent. Wetting and non-wetting fluids flow
simultaneously in both fractures and the matrix. The
combination of these two flow processes results in a combined
relative permeability behavior that has not been determined.
6 SPE 92133

References Nomenclature

1. Rangel-Germán, E.R., 2002: “Water Infiltration in h depth of the porous media [µm]
Fractured Porous Media: In-Situ Imaging, Analytical k permeability [m2]
Model, and Numerical Study,” Stanford University kf absolute fracture permeability (m2)
PhD Dissertation. km matrix permeability (m2)
2. Rangel-Germán, E.R. and Kovscek, A.R.: “Experimental kr relative permeability
and Analytical Study of Multidimensional Imbibition L length [cm]
in Fractured Porous Media,” Journal of Petroleum p pressure [atm]
Science and Engineering (2002) 36, 45-60. r radius [µm]
3. Pooladi-Darvish, M. and Firoozabadi, A.: "Cocurrent and v velocity [m/s]
Countercurrent Imbibition in a Water-Wet Matrix V volume [cm3]
Block," Soc. Pet. Eng. J. 5: 3-11, 2000. W width [cm]
4. George, D.S.: “Visualization of Solution Gas Drive in wf fracture aperture (m)
Viscous Oil”, M.S. Thesis, Stanford University, γ surface tension [dyne/cm]
September, 1999. φ porosity [fraction]
5. Buckley, J.S.: "Multiphase Displacements in µ viscosity (Pa-s)
Micromodels", Interfacial Phenomena in Petroleum
Recovery, Morrow, N.R. (ed.), Marcel Dekker Inc.,
New York, NY (1991) 157-189. Subscripts/Superscripts
6. Sagar, N.S. and Castanier, L.M.: “Oil-Foam Interactions in c capillary
a Micromodel,” SUPRI-TR110 Report, Stanford e entry
University, November 1997. f fracture
7. Hornbrook, J.W., Castanier, L.M. and Petit, P.A.: g gas
“Observation of Foam/Oil Interactions in a New, High- o oil
Resolution Micromodel,” paper SPE 22631 in w water
proceedings of the 1991 SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, TX, October.
8. Guatam, P.S. and Mohanty, K.K.: “Role of Fracture Flow Acknowledgment
in Matrix-Fracture Transfer,” paper SPE 77336 in
proceedings of the 2002 SPE Annual Technical This work was prepared with the support of U.S. Department
Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, October. of Energy, under Award No. DE-FC26-00BC15311.
9. Kleppe, J. and Morse, R.A.: “Oil Production from However, any opinions, findings, conclusions, or
Fractured Reservoirs by Water Displacement,” paper recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors
SPE 5084 in proceedings of the 1974 Annual Meeting and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOE.
of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Houston, TX, Additional support from the Stanford University Petroleum
October. Research Institute (SUPRI-A) Industrial Affiliates and
10. Dutra, T.V. and Aziz, K.: “A New Double-Porosity Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tencnología (CONACyT),
Reservoir Model for Oil/Water Flow Problems,” SPE México is gratefully acknowledged.
Reservoir Engineering (November 1992), 419-425.
11. Witherspoon, P. A., Wang, J. S., Iwai, K., and Gale, J. E.:
"Validity of the Cubic Law for Fluid Flow in a
Deformable Rock Fracture," Water Resources Research
(1980) 16, No. 6, 1016-1024.
12. Fourar, M., Bories, S., Lenormand, R., and Persoff, P.:
“Two-Phase Flow in Smooth and Rough Fractures:
Measurement and Correlation by Porous-Medium and
Pipe Flow Models,” Water Resources Research (1993)
29, 3699-3708.
SPE 92133 7

TABLE 1. FLUID PROPERTIES

Property Water Decane Air

Specific Gravity 1.0 0.73421 0.0012

Viscosity 1.0 cp 0.95 cp ~0.02 cp
8 SPE 92133

Figure1. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image of

Berea sandstone thin section (left) and silicon micromodel (right).

5 cm
fracture

25 µm

5 cm

Inlet Outlet

Figure 2. Schematic of the micromodel: The network acts as the porous medium
and the adjacent channels act as the high conductivity fractures.
SPE 92133 9

Observation Inlet/outlet
Window ports

Inlet/outlet
to MM ports

Perforations for
screws O ring gap

Figure 3. Schematic of the micromodel holder. Top (left) and bottom (right) pieces.

Air

17 min 20 min Water 30 min 49 min

1 hr 13 min 1 hr 53 min 2 hr 45 min 3 hr 5 min

Figure 4. Micromodel images showing “filling-fracture" regime:

air-water system. Water is darkly shaded.
10 SPE 92133

Matrix Matri

Fracture
Fracture

Figure 4.5. Microscope images of the micromodel during “filling-fracture" regime, close to inlet.

Water Air

Air

Water

Trapped
Air

Figure 6. Filling of a section of the fracture close to the outlet.

SPE 92133 11

Water
Figure 4.7. Water advance in the matrix in the direction perpendicular to the fracture.

Channels

5 hr 5 min final
Figure 8. Images of the micromodel showing air escaping by 'channels'.
Air

10 min 12 min 18 min 23 min

Water

25 min 28 min 45 min

Channel

Figure 9. Images of the micromodel showing “instantly-filled fracture" regime.

12 SPE 92133

matrix

water air

Figure 10. Microscope images of the “instantly-filled fracture" regime.

air

water

Figure 11. Water advance in the matrix in the direction perpendicular to

the fracture during the “instantly-filled fracture” regime.
SPE 92133 13

air air

water

water

Figure 12. Water advance in the matrix perpendicular to

the fracture during “instantly-filled fracture” regime. 100X Magnification.
14 SPE 92133

water

Oil blob
growing

oil

water

Figure 13. Production of oil by counter-current imbibition of water.

“Instantly-filled fracture” regime. Oil-water system.