The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016
RELATIVE PERMEABILITY CURVES FOR TWO-PHASE FLOWS
THROUGH HETEROGENEOUS VUGGY CARBONATES
Hikaru Kusanagi1, Noriaki Watanabe1, Takashi Shimazu2, and Masahiko Yagi2
1.
Tohoku University
2.
JAPEX
This paper was selected for presentation by a JFES program committee following
review of an abstract submitted by the author(s).
ABSTRACT
Appropriate relative permeability curves for two-phase
flows through heterogeneous vuggy carbonates remain
unclear. We have therefore conducted numerical oil-water
two-phase flow simulations using X-ray CT data, to obtain
relative permeability curves for different types of vuggy
carbonate samples. 3D distributions of CT number of the
samples, which consist of 400-m cubic voxels, are
converted into 3D porosity distributions, and
corresponding 3D distributions of absolute permeability
are obtained by assuming porosity-permeability relations
of non-vuggy carbonates at the voxel scale. 3D
distributions of water saturation at different global water
saturation levels for different capillary pressure conditions
are obtained for the porosity distributions, by assuming
porosity-dependent capillary pressure curves of non-
vuggy carbonates at the voxel scale, providing
corresponding 3D distributions of oil and water relative
permeabilities with an assumption of Corey-type relative
permeability curves at the voxel scale. Darcy flow
simulations for resultant distributions of oil and water
effective permeabilities provide global oil and water
relative permeabilities at various global water saturation
levels (i.e., relative permeability curves), which are
validated by two-phase flow experiments. As a result,
relative permeability curves of the samples containing vug
pores distributed over the entire body exhibit Corey-type
behaviors. On the other hand, relative permeability curves
of the samples containing vug pores having fracture-like
2D distributions exhibit -type behaviors, which has been
observed for two-phase flows through rock fractures. In
case of vuggy carbonates, there is a possibility to have the
non-Corey-type relative permeability curves, which are
characterized by quite different behaviors of non-wetting
phase from those of Corey type, depending on the
distribution of vug pores because vug pores of weaker
capillarity strongly affect behaviors of non-wetting phase.
INTRODUCTION
Effective developments of vuggy carbonate reservoirs
require a good understanding of the fluid flow
characteristics originating from heterogeneous pore
systems of vuggy carbonates [Lucia, 1995; Lny, 2006;
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F
Garing et al., 2014]. Since fluid flows in vuggy carbonates,
which often contain randomly distributed vug pores
having different intensities, are usually difficult to
experimentally evaluate in detail, fluid flow analyses by
numerical models are effective [Sukop et al., 2013; van
der Land et al., 2013]. Therefore, the authors recently
developed an X-ray CT based method to numerically
analyze fluid flows through vuggy carbonates with
heterogeneous porosity distributions [Kusanagi et al.,
2014, 2015], which was inspired by the X-ray CT based
method to analyze fluid flows through fractures with
heterogeneous aperture distributions [Watanabe et al.,
2011a, 2011b, 2012]. This method creates a 3D porosity
distribution of a vuggy carbonate sample based on the
partial volume effect in X-ray CT, and simulates Darcy
flow in a corresponding 3D permeability distribution,
where local permeability is calculated based on the
permeability-porosity relation of non-vuggy carbonates
reported by Lucia [1995] (local non-vuggy assumption).
Applying this method and an experimental 3D imaging of
flow paths to different types of vuggy carbonate samples
have indicated that fluid flows through vuggy carbonates
are generally characterized by formation of preferential
flow paths (i.e., channeling flow), where considerable
amounts of pores does not effectively contribute to the
flow. The formation of preferential flow paths within
vuggy carbonates may be logical when considering their
heterogeneous permeability distributions. It is well known
that fluid flows through fractures and fracture networks
with heterogeneous permeability distributions are
generally characterized by the formation of preferential
flow paths as well [Watanabe et al., 2008; Nemoto et al.,
2009; Watanabe et al., 2009; Ishibashi et al., 2012;
Ishibashi et al., 2015]. Only a part of pores (typically
<50% of the total pore volume) effectively contributes to
the flow, while the other pores contain stagnant fluids.
Additionally, histograms of local porosity for all samples
are characterized by lognormal distributions with different
geometric mean and standard deviation depending on the
heterogeneities of the rocks. It has been suggested for
vuggy carbonates that their global permeabilities may be
predicted from the geometric mean and standard deviation.
Thus, single-phase flow characteristics of vuggy
carbonates have become clear.
However, two-phase flow characteristics of vuggy
The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016
carbonates remain unclear although porosity-dependent
capillary pressure curves and Corey-type relative
permeability curves of non-vuggy carbonates have been
reported [Lucia, 1995; Gharbi and Blunt, 2012; Dernaika
et al., 2013]. Therefore, we have explored two-phase flow
characteristics for heterogeneous vuggy carbonates. We
have conducted a X-ray CT based numerical oil-water
two-phase flow simulation, which has been expanded
from the single-phase simulation describe above, to obtain
relative permeability curves for different types of vuggy
carbonate samples. In order to validate the numerical
results, we have also conducted two-phase flow
experiments, in which oil and water relative
permeabilities are measured and flow paths of oil are
visualized by X-ray CT.
METHODS
Vuggy Carbonate Samples - Five vuggy limestone
samples (25 mm in diameter, 20 mm in length) were
prepared from bigger limestone samples from the
Minatogawa Formation in Okinawa Island, and the Daito
Formation in Minami-daito Island, southwestern Japan
(Figure 1). Minato 1 and 2 from the Minatogawa
Formation contained vug pores distributed over the entire
body, where connectivity of pores appeared to be higher
for Minato 2. Daito 1 from the Daito Formation also
contained vug pores that distributed over the entire body,
and connectivity of pores appeared to be lower, compared
to Minato 1 and 2. A thin section observation indicated
that number of isolated pores by secondary cementation
appeared to be greater for the Daito Formation. Daito 2
and 3 from the Daito Formation contained larger vug
pores having fracture-like 2D distributions, which were
quite different from distributions of vug pores in the other
samples.
Minato1 Minato2 Daito1 Daito2 Daito3
25 mm
Figure 1: Photos of the vuggy carbonate samples
with different appearances of vug pores.
Numerical Method A 3D distribution of CT number (a
measure of X-ray attenuation) for each sample at
atmospheric pressure was obtained by X-ray CT scanner
produced by Comscantecno Co., Ltd (ScanXmate-
D225RSS270). Note that the above X-ray CT was
conducted at an X-ray tube voltage of 120 kV, a tube
current of 300 A, a voxel size (resolution) of
400400400 m3. A 3D porosity distribution within each
sample was obtained from the 3D distribution of CT
number taken at the air-saturated condition, based on the
-2-
partial volume effect. The relation between local porosity
in fraction, i, and CT number, CTNi, at ith voxel of the
air-saturated sample is described by
CTN i CTN solid
i =
CTN air CTN solid , (1)
where CTNair and CTNsolid, respectively, are the CT
numbers of the air and solid (rock-forming mineral).
CTNsoild in the present study was 3305-3350 Hounsfield
F
units. The global porosity for the entire volume, , may
be calculated by
N 1
i xyz
= i =0
, (2)
Nxyz
where N is the total number of voxels, and x, y, and z
are the voxel dimensions (400 m).
In the two-phase flow simulation in three dimensions (x-
y-z coordinates), the Darcy flow was simulated separately
for oil and water based on the equation of continuity for a
steady-state laminar flow of a viscous and incompressible
fluid. The equation of continuity for the Darcy flow is
described as follows:
k k
A r P = 0 , (3)
where A is the cross-sectional area in which the fluid flows,
k is the local absolute permeability, kr and are
respectively the local relative permeability and dynamic
viscosity of either oil or water, and P is the fluid pressure.
To solve Eq. (3) for both water and oil flows, we
determined distributions of absolute permeability, and oil
and water relative permeabilities as functions of local
fractional water saturation, sw, assuming the following
Corey-type relative permeability curves at all locations
[Corey, 1954; Gharbi and Blunt, 2012; Dernaika et al.,
2013]:
k r , w = s w4 , (4)
2
(
k r , nw = (1 s w ) 1 s w2 , ) (5)
where kr,w and kr,nw, respectively, are the local wetting
phase (water) and non-wetting (oil) phase relative
permeabilities. Note that the local wetting and non-
wetting phase residual saturations were assumed to be
zero because residual saturations were expected to be
negligibly small at a very small scale such the voxel scale.
The local absolute permeability, k in m2, and water
 The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016

saturation, sw, respectively, were derived from the were simulated separately by solving a finite-difference
permeability-porosity relation and porosity-dependent form of Eq. (3), with distributions of absolute and relative
capillary pressure curve for non-vuggy carbonates permeabilities, under a unidirectional flow geometry
reported in Lucia [1995]. In the literature, three along the sample axis. Based on simulation results, the
combinations of the permeability-porosity relation and global oil and water effective permeabilities for the entire
capillary pressure curve are reported for the rock- volume were calculated based on the Darcys law, and
fabric/petrophysical classes of 1, 2, and 3. In case of class finally were divided by the global absolute permeability at
1 with particle sizes of 100-500 m, the combination may Sw = 0 or 1, to obtain global oil and water relative
be written as follows: permeabilities which correspond to the vertical axis of the
relative permeability curves.
F
( )
k = 4.535 10 6 8.537 , (6)
Experimental Method Figure 2 shows the experimental
s w = 0.02219 H 0.316 1.745 , (7) system to measure oil (n-decane) and water relative
permeabilities, and to visualize flow paths by X-ray CT,
and, in case of class 2 with particle sizes of 20-100 m, for the samples. The rubber-sleeved sample was placed
the combination may be written as follows: within the core holder, of which the body was made of
30wt% CFR PEEK (VICTREX PEEK 450CA30)
( )
k = 2.040 10 9 6.38 , (8)
[Watanabe et al., 2012]. The end plugs attached at both
end faces of the sample had two holes, respectively, for
s w = 0.1404 H 0.407 1.440 , (9) measurements of pore pressure and flow rate. Confining
stress was applied to the sample by pressurizing the fluid
for confining pressure with the pump. Using the other
and, in case of class 3 with particle sizes of 20 m, the pump, pore fluids were injected into the sample from the
combination may be written as follows: bottom of the sample, and flowed out from the top of the

( )
sample, where pore pressure was controlled by the back
k = 2.884 10 12 4.275 , (10) pressure regulator. At a low effective confining stress of 2
MPa and 20oC, oil (viscosity: 0.9 mPas) and water (1.0
s w = 0.6110 H 0.505 1.210 , (11)
mPas) relative permeabilities were measured under
steady state conditions by injecting both fluids
where H is the height above capillary pressure equal to simultaneously at various flow-rate ratios, providing a
zero, in meter, when assuming the case of a reservoir with relation between the two relative permeabilities, which
interfacial tension of 28 mN/m, contact angle of 44o, and may be compared to that from the numerically obtained
water density of 0.88103 kg/m3. relative permeability curves. Note that the contact angle
and interfacial tension, respectively, were almost zero and
A thin section observation indicated that the primary class 51 mN/m for the fluid pair.
was class 2 for all samples. Use of the class 2 relations
was therefore the first option. However, a preliminary Pressure gauge

investigation revealed that the class 2 relations were not

suitable for Daito 2 and 3 with the high intensity of the
formation of vug pores. Instead, the class 1 relations for X-ray source
larger particle/pore sizes were suitable for the two samples.
Core holder
Consequently, the class 1 relations were used for Daito 2
and 3, and the class 2 relations were used for the other Flow out Flow in

samples.
Figure 2: Experimental system to measure oil
The distribution of water saturation was obtained at (decane) and water relative permeabilities, and to
various global water saturation levels by varying H. The visualize flow paths by X-ray CT, for the samples.
global water saturation, Sw, which corresponds to the
horizontal axis in relative permeability curves, may be In the visualization of flow paths, the core holder was
calculated by placed in the X-ray CT scanner. For the sample at the same
effective confining stress and temperature, a 3D

N 1
i =0
s w,i i xyz distribution of CT number was obtained first at 28wt%
Sw = , (12) KIaq-saturated condition, and then after simultaneously
N i xyz injecting both KIaq (CT number: 5600 Hounsfield units)
and decane (CT number: -280 Hounsfield units) at a
where sw,i is the local water saturation at ith voxel. For prescribed flow-rate ratio. By doing so, flow paths of
each distribution of water saturation, oil and water flows decane were finally visualized as the regions having
decreased CT number.

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The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION two data points on relative permeability curves. In this
way, full relative permeability curves are obtained through
Figure 3 shows examples of porosity, water saturation, the numerical simulations at various H values.
relative permeability, and flow models, which are
respectively the 3D distributions of porosity, water The relative permeability curves of the samples exhibited
saturation, water (wetting phase) and oil (non-wetting not only Corey-type behaviors but also non-Corey-type
phase) relative permeabilities and flow rates, at H = 5 m behaviors. Minato 1 and 2, and Daito 1, which contained
in the porosity-dependent capillary pressure curve, for vug pores distributed over the entire body, exhibited
Minato 1. The flow rates are normalized so that the Corey-type curve (Figure 4).
maximum value becomes unity, and negligibly small flow
rates of 0.01 are transparent in the figure. 1.0
F
Example for Minato1 at H = 5 m

Relative permeability (fraction)

Porosity model Wetting phase
saturation model
0.8

0.6

0.4

0 0.25 0.5 0 0.5 1 0.2

Porosity(fraction) Wetting phase saturation (fraction)

Wetting phase Non-wetting phase

rel. perm. model rel. perm. model 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Wetting phase saturation (fraction)
Figure 4: Numerically obtained Corey-type
relative permeability curves for Minato 1 and 2,
and Daito1, which contained vug pores
distributed over the entire body.
0 0.5 1
Relative permeability (fraction) On the other hand, Daito 2 and 3, which contained vug
Wetting phase flow model Non-wetting phase flow model pores having fracture-like 2D distributions, exhibited non-
Corey-type behaviors, which have different non-wetting
phase (oil) relative permeability behaviors from those of
Flow direction

the Corey-type behaviors (Figure 5). The curves for Daito

3 shows shape, which has been observed for two-phase
flows through fractures, and may be written as follows
[Watanabe et al., 2015]:
0.01 0.1 1 4
Log10 (Normalized local flow rate) S S w, r
kr , w = w , at S w S w, r (13)
Figure 3: Examples of models for the porosity, 1 S
wetting phase (water) saturation, relative w, r
permeabilities and flows for wetting phase k r , w = 0 , at S w < S w, r (14)
(water) and non-wetting phase (oil). n
Sw
kr , nw = 1 , at S w 1 S nw, r (15)
The water saturation model clearly shows lower water 1 S nw
saturations at higher porosity points, reflecting the , r
porosity-dependent capillary pressure curve. At such k r , nw = 0 , at S w > 1 S nw, r (16)
lower water saturation points, the water and oil relative
permeabilities are respectively lower and higher, resulting
in quite heterogeneous distributions of relative where Sw,r and Snw,r are the wetting and non-wetting phase
permeabilities even though relative permeability residual saturations, respectively, and n is the exponent
behaviors are completely the same (Corey-type) at all characterizing the non-wetting phase relative permeability
points. For these examples, the global fractional water behavior. Indeed, the curves can be represented by the
saturation was 0.74, and the global water and oil relative model with a combination of the wetting phase residual
permeabilities were respectively 0.18 and 0.09, providing saturation of 0.6, the non-wetting phase residual saturation

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 The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016

of 0.1, and the exponent of 2. Additionally, the curves for 1.0 1.0

Non-wetting phase relative

Non-wetting phase relative

Daito 2, showing intermediate behaviors between the

permeability (fraction)

permeability (fraction)
0.8 0.8
Corey- and -type curves, can also be represented by the Minato1 Minato2
0.6 Numerical results 0.6 Numerical results
model with a combination of the wetting phase residual Experimental results Experimental results
0.4 0.4
saturation of 0.1, the non-wetting phase residual saturation
0.2 0.2
of 0.25, and the exponent of unity.
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Wetting phase relative Wetting phase relative
1.0 permeability (fraction) permeability (fraction)

F
1.0 1.0
Relative permeability (fraction)

Non-wetting phase relative

Wetting phase (Daito2)

Non-wetting phase relative

0.8

permeability (fraction)

permeability (fraction)
Non-wetting phase (Daito2) 0.8 0.8
Daito1 Daito2
0.6 Numerical results 0.6 Numerical results

0.6 0.4
Experimental results
0.4
Experimental results

0.2 0.2
0.4 0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Wetting phase relative Wetting phase relative
permeability (fraction) permeability (fraction)
0.2 1.0

Non-wetting phase relative

permeability (fraction)
0.8

0 0.6 Daito3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Numerical results
0.4 Experimental results
Wetting phase saturation (fraction)
0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Wetting phase relative
permeability (fraction)

Figure 6: Comparisons of the numerical and

experimental relations between non-wetting
phase (oil) and wetting phase (water) relative
permeabilities, demonstrating validity of the
numerically determined relative permeability
curves.

We finally discuss the reason why there should be the

Figure 5: Numerically obtained non-Corey-type
relative permeability curves for Daito 2 and 3,
which contained vug pores having fracture-like
2D distributions. The bold curves are the model.
To validate the numerically obtained relative permeability
curves, we compared relations between non-wetting phase
(oil) and wetting phase (water) relative permeabilities
from the numerically and experimentally determined
relative permeabilities (Figure 6). In this comparison, the
numerical relation should match the experimental relation
if the numerically obtained relative permeability curves
represent real relative permeability behaviors. As seen in
the figure, the numerical relations are close to the
experimental relations, demonstrating that validity of the
numerically obtained relative permeability curves, and
therefore the existence of the non-Corey-type relative
permeability curves.
Corey- and the non-Corey-type relative permeability
curves for two-phase flows through vuggy carbonates.
The main difference between the two types of relative
permeability curves are the different non-wetting phase
relative permeability behaviors. Since wetting phase
saturation is determined by the porosity-dependent
capillary pressure curve, wetting and non-wetting phases,
respectively, are likely to flow preferentially through
smaller porosity points by non-vug pores and larger
porosity points by vug pores. Since non-vug pores are the
majority of pores even for vuggy carbonates, non-vug
pores are generally distributed over the entire body.
Consequently, the flow of wetting phase generally occurs
in three dimensions so that the wetting phase relative
permeability behavior is the Corey-type which is
applicable for porous rocks having 3D pore distributions.
In contrast, the flow of non-wetting phase occurs in either
three dimensions or non-three-dimensions depending on
the distribution of vug pores. In case of a vuggy carbonate
having vug pores distributed over the entire body such as
Minato 1 and 2, and Daito 1, the flow of non-wetting
phase may occur in three dimensions, resulting in a Corey-
type non-wetting phase relative permeability curve. In
case of a vuggy carbonate having other distribution of vug
pores such as Daito 2 and 3, the flow of non-wetting phase

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The 22nd Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29 - 30, 2016
may occur in non-three-dimensions, resulting in a non-
Corey-type non-wetting phase relative permeability curve.
Figure 7 shows the flow models and experimental
visualization results for non-wetting phase (oil) within
Minato 2 and Daito 2 which are representative for the
samples having the 3D and 2D distributions of vug pores.
The numerical and experimental results, obtained for each
sample at a similar combination of wetting and non-
wetting phase relative permeabilities, are consistent with
each other. The flow paths within Minato 2 are distributed
over the entire body, whereas the flow paths within Daito
2 are quite different from those within Minato 2, as
discussed above. It can be therefore concluded for two-
phase flows through vuggy carbonates that characteristics
of relative permeability curves may vary depending on the
distribution of vug pores, and there are two types of
relative permeability curves, i.e., the Corey- and types,
at the minimum.
Experimental visualization of Non-wetting phase
non-wetting phase flow paths flow model
Minato2
Real. perm. Real. perm.
Wetting phase: 0.00 Wetting phase: 0.03
Non-wetting phase: 0.36 Non-wetting phase: 0.31
Daito2
Real. perm. Real. perm.
Wetting phase: 0.00 Wetting phase: 0.00
Non-wetting phase: 0.72 Non-wetting phase: 0.72
100 1500 3000 0.01
CT number (Hounsfield units) Log10 (Normalized local flow rate)
Figure 7: Flow models and experimental
visualization results, showing the large
difference in flow paths of non-wetting phase
(oil) between the vuggy carbonate samples
having the 3D (Minato 2) and 2D (Daito 2)
distributions of vug pores.
CONCLUSIONS
We have explored relative-permeability curves for
heterogeneous vuggy carbonates, through oil-water two-
phase flow simulations and experiments for different
types of vuggy carbonate samples. As a result, it has been
revealed that relative permeability curves of vuggy
carbonates may be not only the Corey-type but also non-
Corey-type, such as the -type, curves. The main
difference between the Corey- and non-Corey-type curves
is the different relative permeability behaviors of non-
wetting phase which preferentially flows through vug
pores. Consequently, characteristics of relative
permeability curves may vary depending on the
distribution of vug pores, and the Corey-type curves may
be applicable only for vuggy carbonates having vug pores
distributed over the entire body.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Kimio Watanabe at
Renergies, Limited for the coding of the modeling
algorithm. The authors also thank JAPEX for permitting
F
this presentation.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Hikaru Kusanagi and Noriaki Watanabe, respectively, are

a master course student and an associate professor at
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku
University. Takashi Shimazu and Masahiko Yagi,
respectively, are a researcher and a senior research

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