SPE 168146

The Effect of Core Dimensions on the Optimum Acid Flux in Carbonate

Acidizing
K. Dong, SPE, X. Jin, SPE, D. Zhu, SPE, and A.D. Hill, SPE, Texas A&M University

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control held in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, 26–28 February 2014.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The results of matrix stimulation in carbonate formation strongly depend on the acid injection condition. Large amounts of
lab tests indicate that an optimum acid interstitial velocity, vi-opt, exists, which results in the minimum volume of acid required
for wormhole propagation (optimal breakthrough pore volume) and the most efficient stimulation. During the last decade,
much progress has been made to identify the factors that affect the optimum conditions of linear coreflood experiments,
including temperature, acid type, acid concentration and lithology. However, there lacks a discussion on the effect of core
dimensions on the optimal conditions. Experimental results published before show strong evidence that the optimal condition
changes as the dimension of core samples changes. Since the optimal condition from experimental studies is the critical
information used in treatment design, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between the optimal condition and the
core geometry.
In this work, a series of coreflood experiments were conducted with Indiana limestone cores at room temperature.
The cores selected are relatively homogeneous to eliminate the effect of heterogeneity. The acid used is 15% plain
hydrochloric acid. The core lengths range from 1-in. to 10-in. and the core diameters are 1-in., 1.5-in. and 4-in. From the
experimental results, the effects of core length and core diameter are examined. The results showed that the vi-opt becomes
independent of the core length when the core length reaches a value of 6 inches. These observations can help with the
recommendations of the proper core length and core diameter to be used in future laboratory experiments.
The core-size dependence is important while scaling up the laboratory results to field applications. The results of
this work can give a better understanding of how upscaling works. Also, with these results, the existing wormhole growth
models can take into account the core-size dependence, resulting in more accurate upscaling of experimental results.

Introduction
Two techniques are commonly used to stimulate wells in carbonate reservoirs, matrix acidizing and acid fracturing. In matrix
acidizing, acid creates wormholes that can propagate as much as tens of feet beyond the wellbore. Furui et al. (2012) showed
that about 60% of the wells after acidizing treatment had skin factors of -4 or more negative, based on statistical observation
of wells in Middle Eastern limestone reservoirs and North Sea chalk reservoirs. Even for undamaged wells, matrix acidizing
can effectively increase well productivity if designed correctly.
From linear coreflood experimental studies, it is well-known that low acid injection rates lead to compact
dissolution, which only enlarges the wellbore or creates large-diameter but short wormholes. It does not propagate acid to the
desired depth. High acid injection rate creates a dominant wormhole along with many branches. These branches also reduce
the depth of wormhole penetration. Since some acid is spent on generating the branches, the efficiency of high flow rate
injection is relatively low. Wormhole efficiency relationships, like the one shown in Fig. 1, indicate that an optimum
condition exists, for which the deepest penetration of wormholes occur at an optimal injection rate. This injection rate gives
the best stimulation results while consuming the least amount of acid.
2 SPE 168146

Fig. 1— Wormhole efficiency relationship generated by experimental data (Talbot and Gdanski, 2008) fitted with
Buijse and Glasbergen model

In general, coreflood experiments are used to determine this optimum acid injection rate for a particular acid-rock
system by generating a wormhole efficiency relationship curve with multiple injection rates. Large amounts of lab data have
been published (Wang et al., 1993, Fredd and Fogler, 1998, Bazin, 2001 and Buijse and Glasbergen, 2005) illustrating the
existence of this optimum. The effects of the important parameters on matrix acidizing, such as temperature, lithology, acid
type and concentration, on vi-opt have been studied. The experimental results show that with increasing temperature, the vi-opt
increases, and the corresponding PVbt-opt (breakthrough pore volume) also increases. The vi-opt increases with increasing acid
concentration and the corresponding PVbt-opt decreases.
Different models have been developed to calculate the optimum acid injection rate in particular acid-rock systems.
Wang et al. (1993) developed a transition pore size theory, which states that if the maximum pore size of a core is larger than
the transition pore size, a dominant wormhole can be formed. This transition pore size is obtained by equating the pore
growth function in diffusion-limited region and pore growth function in reaction-limited region.
Fredd and Fogler (1999) developed a comprehensive Damkohler number, which incorporates the physics of the
whole reaction process (acid diffuses to the pore wall, reaction at the wall occurs, and products diffuse away from the wall).
They discovered that this number approximately equals to 0.29 for a wide range of acid-rock systems. The optimum acid
injection rate is then calculated based on this Damkohler number.
Core geometry effects on the wormhole efficiency relationship were noticed and discussed by some researchers.
Buijse (2000) stated that the wormhole structure and fluid distribution are affected by the core dimension in the acidizing
coreflood experiment. There was no quantitative description about this effect. Bazin (2001) observed that the vi-opt increases
with increasing core length, and so does the corresponding PVbt-opt. based on two different core lengths. Furui et al. (2012)
showed some experimental results for 4-in. diameter by 20-in. length cores. These cores present a small vi-opt and PVbt-opt,
compared with 1-in. diameter by 6-in. length cores. Their work stated that the core-size dependencies are primarily caused by
flow convergence at the wormhole tip and boundary conditions.
Kalia and Balakotaiah (2009) studied the core dimension effect by simulating the acidizing process in a 2D domain.
In their simulation, they calculated the breakthrough pore volume under different aspect ratios. They set the domain length
constant and change the domain height. In this way, different aspect ratios are achieved. They found that at optimal
conditions, the number of wormholes initiated increases with the increasing domain height and the PVbt-opt decreases. But
when the domain height continues increasing, the PVbt-opt will increase again, because more than one dominant wormhole will
form.
Cohen et al. (2008) numerically studied the core geometry effect on the dissolution pattern and flow behavior. He
classified the domain as being confined and unconfined, depending on the aspect ratio. In general, the confined domain has
an aspect ratio much less than 1, while the unconfined domain has an aspect ratio greater than 1. In the confined domain, it
takes less time for the wormhole competition to disappear, while in the unconfined domain, the wormhole competition lasts a
longer time. After the wormhole competition disappears, all the flow converges to the wormhole. Therefore, for the same
interstitial velocity, the flow rate in the wormhole is higher in the unconfined domain than that in the confined domain after
the wormhole competition disappears. He also found that the vi-opt becomes constant if the aspect ratio is large enough, which
can mimic the field condition.
In this work, the effects of core length and core diameter on the optimum condition are studied experimentally. This
paper describes the experimental condition and procedure. Then it shows the results of the effect of core length and diameter
on optimal interstitial velocity.
SPE 168146 3

Experimental Condition and Procedure

The acidizing coreflood experiments were conducted in the apparatus shown in Fig. 2. The apparatus is comprised of a
pumping system, an accumulation system, a coreholder and a data recording system. During an experiment, the syringe pump
pushes oil to the water/acid accumulator to displace the water/acid inside the accumulator to the coreholder. A back pressure
regulator is used to pressurize the system before water injection. In these experiments, the back pressure is set to 1000 psi.
The system is fully isolated, and the volume of the incompressible fluid injected to the system from the syringe pump is
always equal to the volume of the fluid collected at the effluent. This was used to check for leakage and trapped air in the
system during the experiments. Once the system is pressurized, water injection starts. When the flow reaches steady state,
permeability is calculated using the pressure drop at this stage, and water injection is switched to acid injection. During acid
injection, the pressure drop across the core decreases when wormholes start propagating. When the pressure drop becomes
near zero, the wormhole has broken through the core. Water injected is switched on again to flush the system.
During experiments, the confining pressure is applied to prevent the fluid bypassing the core. This confining
pressure is usually 400 psi higher than the injection pressure. The pressure differential across the core is recorded by the
digital pressure transducer.
Indiana limestone is used in this research. All the cores were measured to have an average porosity of 15%, and
permeabilities ranging from 3 md to 7 md. The acid used in this study is 15 wt% plain HCl, and the temperature is room
temperature. The experimental data are fitted by the model described by Buijse and Glasbergen (2005) to generate the
wormhole efficiency relationships. The experimental condition is summarized in Table 1.

Fig. 2—Schematic of the experiment setup.

Table 1 Experimental Conditions

Permeability 3-7 md
Average Porosity 15%
Acid Type Straight HCl
Acid Concentration 15 weight%
Temperature 72 ᵒF

Results and Discussions

There are a total of 11 groups of experiments for this study. Among the 11 groups, four groups were run using 1-in. diameter
cores, with four different core lengths, 1-in., 2-in, 4-in. and 6-in.; four groups were run with 1.5-in. diameter cores and four
different core lengths, 4-in., 6-in, 8-in. and 10-in.; three groups were run with 4-in. diameter cores and three different core
lengths, 4-in, 6-in. and 8-in. The optimum conditions for each group are listed in Table 2. These values are obtained by
plotting all the experimental results, fitting the data using the Buijse-Glasbergen model (2005) to generate the wormhole
4 SPE 168146

efficiency relationship, and then identifying the optimal condition (vi-opt and PVbt-opt) at the lowest point of the curve. Fig. 3
shows the wormhole efficiency relationship for the 1.5-in in diameter and 8-in in length test. The optimal interstitial flux is 2
cm/min, and the optimal PVbt is 0.37. The smooth curve is fitted from the experimental data based on the Buijse and
Glasbergen model. The rest of the curves from the study are shown in the Appendix.

Table 2 Optimum condition for each group of experiment

1-in. diameter 1.5-in. diameter 4-in. diameter

Core length, inches
vi-opt, cm/min PVbt-opt vi-opt, cm/min PVbt-opt vi-opt, cm/min PVbt-opt
1 1.48 0.67 ------ ------ ------ ------
2 1.45 0.55 ------ ------ ------ ------
4 2 0.45 1.62 0.32 0.77 0.25
6 2.16 0.51 1.96 0.33 0.98 0.21
8 ------ ------ 1.98 0.37 1.01 0.2
10 ------ ------ 1.96 0.44 ------ ------

10
PVbt-opt, dimensionless

Indiana limestone
1.5-in. diameter by 8-in. length
Average porosity: 15%
Average permeability: 5.9 md
15wt% HCl @ 75F
0.1
0.1 1 10
Vi-opt, cm/min
Fig. 3—Wormhole efficiency relationships for 1.5-in. diameter and 8-in. length cores

The Effect of Core Length on the Optiumum Condition

The effect of core length on vi-opt and PVbt-opt is illustrated in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4, there is no clear trend of the optimum
conditions for the experimental results using 1-in. diameter core samples. The vi-opt for 1-in. length core and 2-in. length core
are almost the same. As the core length increased from 2-in. to 6-in. length, the vi-opt increased with increasing core length.
In the 1.5-in. core diameter experimental results, the vi-opt increased as the core length increased. The vi-opt was
almost constant from 6-in. length to 10-in. length, which indicates that if the core is longer than 6 in., the vi-opt is independent
of the core length. While the vi-opt for the 4-in. diameter cores are much lower, it follows the exact trend of the 1.5-in.
diameter core samples. This shows that when the core length reaches 6-in. in length, the vi-opt remains constant and becomes
independent of the core length.
SPE 168146 5

2.5

Vi-opt, cm/min
1.5

0.5 1-in. diameter cores

1.5-in. diameter cores
4-in. diameter cores
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Core length, inch

Fig. 4—The vi-opt under different core lengths for a fixed core diameter.

One of the reasons that the critical length may exists at which vi-opt becomes independent of the core length is due to
wormhole competition. Close to the entry, there may be more than one wormhole formed. As acid injection continues and
wormholes propagate, larger wormholes have less resistance to the acid flow, receiving more acid and growing faster.
(Huang et al. 1999). Smaller wormholes die out. Eventually one dominant wormhole develops. When the core length is too
short, there is a large entry-effect on wormhole propagation, resulting in low efficiency (Huang et al. 1999). If all the short
wormholes cease growing and only one dominant wormhole propagates, all the flow will converge to the dominant
wormhole. The wormhole propagation velocity is proportional to the tip acid velocity and tip acid concentration. For a short
core length, the tip velocity of the wormholes is reduced by having multiple small wormholes. When the core is long enough,
a relatively constant tip velocity can be maintained, and the wormhole propagates more efficiently.

The Effect of Core Diameter on Optiumum Conditions

Furui, et al. (2012) showed that if the core diameter increases, the vi-opt and PVbt-opt will decrease. From Fig. 4 they show that
the large the diameter of the core, the smaller the optimal interstitial velocity. Fig. 5 shows that that when the diameter
increases, the vi-opt decreases linearly. Similar observation has been published before. Fig. 6 shows the coreflood results
presented by Furui, et al. (2010). The optimal interstitial velocity for 4-in core is about 4-5 times smaller than the 1-in
diameter result at the same temperature and acid concentration. Notice that the lengths of these two samples are not the same,
which may introduce more difference in the optimal interstitial velocity.

2.5

2
Vi-opt, cm/min

1.5

1
6'' L
0.5 8'' L
4'' L
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Core diameter, inch

Fig. 5—Core diameter effect on the vi-opt.

6 SPE 168146

Linear Acidflooding Test Data for High Porosity Chalk

k =1 to 2 md, φ = 30 to 35%
100
15 wt% HCl @ 150 F (1"x6")
28 wt% HCl @ 150 F (1"x6")
15 wt% HCl @ 200 F (1"x6")

Pore Volumes To
10 28 wt% HCl @ 200 F (1"x6")

Break Through
28 wt% HCl @ 150 F (4"x20")

0.1
0.1 1 10
Interstitial Velocity, cm/min

Fig. 6—Wormhole efficiency relationship shown that 4-in diameter core yields 4-5 times smaller optimal intersititial
velocity compared with 1-in core (Furui et al., 2012).

Figure 7 is the plot of optimal breakthrough pore volume, PVbt-opt, versus core diameter. From the limited data presented,
we can see that PVbt-opt decreases with increasing core diameter, but the rate of decrease is not a constant (the derivative of the
curve is decreasing also). When the diameter increases, the total pore volume of the core sample becomes bigger. But if there
is only one dominant wormhole, the rock dissolved by acid when creating the wormhole is similar regardless the diameter of
the core, and the breakthrough pore volume (the volume of acid to create wormhole compared with the total pore volume) is
smaller for large diameter cores.

0.6

0.5
PVbt-opt, dimensionless

0.4

0.3

0.2
6'' L

0.1 8'' L
4'' L
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Core diameter, inch

Fig. 7—Core diameter effect on the optimum PVbt-opt.

Evidence of Wormhole Competition

It was stated earlier that the abnormally high value of PVbt-opt for 1-in. diameter by 1-in. length core is due to the multiple
wormhole formation at the beginning section of the core. In order to verify this, a CT scan was done for the 4-inch diameter
by 8-inch length core sample that was matrix acidized using an interstitial velocity that is near the optimal (Fig. 8). The
image shows that there is wormhole competition even if the optimum interstitial velocity was used. At the inlet, it is observed
that several wormholes are initiated when the acid first attacks the core surface. The dominant wormhole was not formed
until the wormhole has penetrated through more than half the core sample. The red circles in the figure highlight the end of
each competitive wormhole. It takes more acid to initiate the dominant wormhole when the wormhole density at the inlet of
the core is large.
SPE 168146 7

Fig. 8—CT Scan for 4-in. diameter by 8-in. length core, with injection at near optimum conditions.

Figure 9 shows the CT scans at four different locations along the core, the inlet (Fig. 9a), ¼ of the core length (Fig.
9b), the middle of the core length (Fig. 9c) and the outlet (Fig. 9d) for the 4x8 core sample. It confirms that the branching
occurs once the wormholes starts propagating, and the small wormholes die out, leaving only a single dominant wormhole
towards the outlet of the core.

a). at the inlet b). at location L/4

c). at location L/2 d). at the outlet

Fig. 9—Cross-sectional CT scans at different locations of 4-in. diameter by 8-in. length core.

The wormhole competition affects the wormhole efficiency relationship. If only the experimental results of 1-in.
diameter by 1-in. length cores are considered, as shown in Fig. 10, the usual wormhole efficiency relationship cannot
describe the experimental data well. These data tend to exhibit the same PVbt, no matter what the interstitial velocity is. It is
strongly recommended to avoid designing acid treatments based on smaller core sample experimental results.
8 SPE 168146

10

PVbt-opt, dimensionless
1

0.1
0.1 1 10
Vi-opt, cm/min

Fig. 10— Experimental results of 1-in. diameter by 1-in. length cores. The red curve is the fitting curve through
model. The green line is made by hand, indicating another possible trend.

In the field operation, fluid loss along the wormhole can be higher than that occurring in coreflood experiments. The
injection pressure is higher than the reservoir pressure, so that the acid can flow into the formation through the wormhole
walls. In the experimental corefloods, there is a no-flow boundary that is perpendicular to and not far from the propogating
wormhole. Because of this near, no-flow boundary in small diameter linear corefloods, the leakoff out of the wormhole walls
is small once a dominant wormhole has formed. Appropriate scale up procedures must be used to translate linear coreflood
results to field conditions (Furui et al., 2012).

Conclusions
This study presents acidizing coreflood experiment results with different core dimensions. The observations from the results
are:
• A stable value of the optimal acid flux was obtained when cores were 6 inches or longer, for core diameters up to 4
inches in diameter. The 6-in. core length is a critical length that can be used to limit the core length effect for the
diameter range tested.
• The optimal acid flux decreases linearly and proportional to core diameter for diameters ranging from 1 inch to 4
inches.
• The pore volumes of acid to breakthrough decreases with increasing core diameter.
• 1-in. length core is too short to define the wormhole efficiency relationship normally observed because the
experiment ends (a wormhole breaks through to the end of the core) before a dominant wormhole has formed. This
leads to noisy experimental data when plotting the pore volumes to breakthrough against interstitial flux in the usual
manner.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the sponsors of the Acid Stimulation Research Program in Petroleum Engineering
Department at Texas A&M University for funding this project.

References
Bazin, B. 2001. From Matrix Acidizing to Acid Fracturing: A Laboratory Evaluation of Acid/Rock Interactions. SPE
Production & Facilities 16 (1): 22-29.

Buijse, M.A. 2000. Understanding Wormholing Mechanisms Can Improve Acid Treatments in Carbonate Formations. SPE
Production & Operations 15 (3): 168-175. DOI: 10.2118/65068-pa

Buijse, M.A. and Glasbergen, G. 2005. A Semiempirical Model to Calculate Wormhole Growth in Carbonate Acidizing.
Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas. SPE 96892. DOI:
10.2118/96892-ms.
SPE 168146 9

Cohen, C.E., Ding, D., Quintard, M. et al. 2008. From Pore Scale to Wellbore Scale: Impact of Geometry on Wormhole
Growth in Carbonate Acidization. Chemical Engineering Science 63 (12): 3088-3099. DOI:
10.1016/j.ces.2008.03.021

Fredd, C.N. and Fogler, H.S. 1998. Alternative Stimulation Fluids and Their Impact on Carbonate Acidizing. SPE Journal 3
(1): 34-41. DOI: 10.2118/31074-pa

Fredd, C.N. and Fogler, H.S. 1999. Optimum Conditions for Wormhole Formation in Carbonate Porous Media: Influence of
Transport and Reaction. SPE Journal 4 (3): 196-205. DOI: 10.2118/56995-pa

Furui, K., Burton, R.C., Burkhead, D.W. et al. 2012. A Comprehensive Model of High-Rate Matrix-Acid Stimulation for
Long Horizontal Wells in Carbonate Reservoirs: Part I--Scaling up Core-Level Acid Wormholing to Field
Treatments. SPE Journal 17 (1): pp. 271-279. DOI: 10.2118/134265-pa

Huang, T., Zhu D., and Hill A.D. 1999. Prediction of Wormhole Population Density in Carbonate Matrix Acidizing. Paper
presented at the SPE European Formation Damage Conference held in The Hague, 31 May-01 June, 1999.

Kalia, N. and Balakotaiah, V. 2009. Effect of Medium Heterogeneities on Reactive Dissolution of Carbonates. Chemical
Engineering Science 64 (2): 376-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2008.10.026

Talbot, M.S. and Gdanski, R.D. 2008. Beyond the Damkohler Number: A New Interpretation of Carbonate Wormholing.
Paper presented at the Europec/EAGE Conference and Exhibition, Rome, Italy. SPE 113042. DOI:
10.2118/113042-ms.

Wang, Y., Hill, A.D., and Schechter, R.S. 1993. The Optimum Injection Rate for Matrix Acidizing of Carbonate Formations.
Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas. SPE 26578. DOI:
10.2118/26578-ms.
10 SPE 168146

Appendix – Experimental data and data fitted wormhole efficiency relationship curves for all core
geometries

10 10 1.5'' D by 6'' L, Exp

1.5'' D by 4'' L, Exp
1.5'' D by 8'' L, Exp
1.5'' D by 10'' L, Exp

PVbt-opt, dimensionless
PVbt-opt, dimensionless

1.5'' D by 6'' L, Fit

1.5'' D by 4'' L, Fit
1.5'' D by 8'' L, Fit
1.5'' D by 10'' L, Fit

1 1
1'' D by 1'' L, Exp
1'' D by 2'' L, Exp
1'' D by 4'' L, Exp
1'' D by 6'' L, Exp
1'' D by 1'' L, Fit
1'' D by 2'' L, Fit
1'' D by 4'' L, Fit
1'' D by 6'' L, Fit
0.1 0.1
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Vi-opt, cm/min Vi-opt, cm/min
Fig. A-1— 1-in. diameter core data fits Fig. A-2— 1.5-in. diameter core data fits

10 10
4'' D by 8'' L, Fit 4'' D by 4'' L, Fit
4'' D by 4'' L, Exp 4'' D by 4'' L, Exp
4'' D by 8'' L, Exp 1.5'' D by 4'' L, Exp
4'' D by 6'' L, Exp 1.5'' D by 4'' L, Fit
PVbt-opt, dimensionless
PVbt-opt, dimensionless

4'' D by 4'' L, Fit 1'' D by 4'' L, Exp

4'' D by 6'' L, Fit 1'' D by 4'' L, Fit

1 1

0.1 0.1
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Vi-opt, cm/min Vi-opt, cm/min
Fig. A-3— 4-in. diameter core data fits Fig. A-4— 4-in. length core data fits

10 4'' D by 6'' L,Fit

10
4'' D by 8'' L, Fit
4'' D by 6'' L, Exp 4'' D by 8'' L, Exp
1.5'' D by 6'' L, Exp 1.5'' D by 8'' L, Exp
PVbt-opt, dimensionless

1.5'' D by 6'' L, Fit

PVbt-opt, dimensionless

1.5'' D by 8'' L, Fit

1'' D by 6'' L, Exp
1'' D by 6'' L, Fit

1 1

0.1 0.1
0.1 1 10 0.1 1 10
Vi-opt, cm/min Vi-opt, cm/min
Fig. A-5— 6-in. length core data fits Fig. A-6— 8-in. length core data fits