2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM

Paper No. 9
Presentation Time: 3:45 PM

Modeling Non-Darcy Flow in Porous and Fractured Reservoirs


WU, Yu-Shu, Petroleum engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St, Golden, CO 80401, ywu@mines.edu

A numerical method as well as a theoretical study of non-Darcy flow of single-phase and multiphase fluids through porous and fractured reservoirs is described. The non-Darcy flow is handled in a three-dimensional, multiphase flow reservoir simulator, while the model formulation incorporates the Forchheimer equation for describing single-phase or multiphase non-Darcy flow and displacement. Numerical solutions are used to obtain some insight into the physics of non-Darcy flow and displacement in reservoirs. In addition, several type curves are provided for well-test analyses of non-Darcy flow to demonstrate a methodology for modeling this type of flow in porous and fractured rocks, including flow in petroleum, geothermal, and groundwater formations.