See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/317277837

Permeability Estimation Using a Fractal and Modified Kozeny-Carman Model

Conference Paper · June 2017

DOI: 10.3997/2214-4609.201701392

CITATIONS READS

0 75

3 authors, including:

Srivardhan Vishnu Debjeet Mondal

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited Coal India Limited
22 PUBLICATIONS   30 CITATIONS    10 PUBLICATIONS   5 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Coal Based Underground Heterogenety View project

Coal fire detection using SP methods View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Debjeet Mondal on 01 June 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Introduction

Permeability is one of the most important parameters to be estimated for production in the
hydrocarbon wells. Earlier methods involve estimation through empirical porosity-permeability
relations available in the literature, based on the correlation coefficients. The approach does not
involve the actual problems existing in the well. Other approaches include recovering the core
samples and processing them in the labs, and establishing a porosity-permeability relationship, which
can be costly as well as time taking. One can also get good results by running the Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance (NMR) Tool, but it is very new to the industry and not fully understood. It is well
established that the permeability estimation largely depends on the grain size distribution, grain shape
and sorting (Pitchumani and Ramakrishnan, 1999). In this paper we are presenting two approaches for
estimating the permeability of a reservoir and results of both the approaches are compared.

Methodology

(i) Estimating Permeability through Fractal Approach

The term tortuous relates to the ease of the fluid to flow in the medium. Tortuous path is the path
covered by the fluid which follows the fractal law. For a heterogeneous porous medium, the fractal
path is given by Eq. 1
𝐷
𝐿𝑡 (𝜀) = 𝜀 1−𝐷𝑡 𝐿0𝑡 … (1)
Where 𝜀, 𝐿𝑡 , 𝐿0 and 𝐷𝑡 are the scale of measurement, tortuous length, characteristic length and
tortuosity fractal dimension. Yu and Cheng (2002) considered diameter (λ) as the scale of
measurement. The relationship can be given by Eq. (2)
𝐷
𝐿𝑡 (𝜀) = 𝜆1−𝐷𝑡 𝐿0𝑡 … (2)
Where 1<𝐷𝑡 <2 defines the convolutedness of the fluid flow in the medium in which 𝐷𝑡 =1 means
straight path while 𝐷𝑡 =2 a highly zigzag path in the medium. Another important factor, size
distribution can be defined by the fractal scaling law (Vadapalli et al., 2016) as given by Eq. 3.
𝜆 𝐷𝑓
𝑁𝑡 (𝐿 ≥ 𝜆𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) = ( 𝜆𝑚𝑎𝑥 ) … (3)
𝑚𝑖𝑛
Where 𝑁𝑡 is the number of pores, 𝐷𝑓 is the pore area dimension (1<𝐷𝑓 <2) with the case when λ
approaches the smallest pore size. Permeability in terms of porosity can be defined using Eq. (4), (5),
(6) and (7).
λ λ
λ𝑖 = (λ 𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) 𝑚𝑎𝑥 1 … (4)
𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝐷
(1−𝑅𝑖 ) 𝑓
(1+𝐷𝑡 )
… (5)
𝐾 = 𝐺𝐴 −
2 ∑𝑗𝑖=1 λ3+𝐷
𝑖
𝑡

λ𝑚𝑖𝑛 √2 1−∅
= 𝑑+ √1−∅𝑒 … (6)
λ𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑐

𝜆𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
𝑅𝑐 1−∅
[√2 (1−∅𝑐
2𝜋
− 1) + √( 3 ) (1−∅𝑐 ) − 2]
1−∅ … (7)
2 𝑒 𝑒
For a medium containing two different fluids, effective porosity can be given by Eq. (8) as
𝜋𝑅2𝑐 )+∅ 𝜋𝑅 2 /2
(𝐴−
∅𝑒 =
2 𝑐 𝑐
… (8)
𝐴
where ∅𝑒 is effective porosity, ∅𝑐 is the micro-porosity inside cluster, Rc is the cluster mean radius, d+
is the ratio of cluster mean diameter to the minimum particle size (d0), λi the diameter of the ith
capillary tube chosen by the Monte Carlo simulation, A being the= total cross-sectional area of a unit
cell, and G the geometry factor for flow through a circular capillary.

The effective porosity ∅𝑒 can be computed by traditional method of calculating porosity by density
log as shown in Eq. (9). As we know that shale is more porous as compared to sandstone but pores are
not interconnected, therefore the bulk density has to be corrected to get effective porosity corrected
(𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 using Eq. (10).

79th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2017

Paris, France, 12-15 June 2017
 ∅ = (𝜌𝑏 − 𝜌𝑚 )⁄(𝜌𝑓 − 𝜌𝑚 ) … (9)
(𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 = (𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 (1 − 𝑉𝑠ℎ ) + (𝜌𝑏 )𝑆ℎ 𝑉𝑆ℎ … (10)
∅𝑒 = ((𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 − 𝜌𝑚 )⁄(𝜌𝑓 − 𝜌𝑚 ) … (11)

Where ∅=porosity, 𝜌𝑏 = bulk density, 𝜌𝑚 = bulk density of matrix, 𝜌𝑓 = bulk density of fluid, 𝑉𝑆ℎ =
Volume of Shale, (𝜌𝑏 )𝑆ℎ = bulk density of shale. The corrected bulk density (𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 can then be used
to compute the effective porosity∅𝑒 using Eq. (11). The values of (𝜌𝑏 )𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 and (𝜌𝑏 )𝑠ℎ are taken from
the selected depth interval of interest.

(ii) Permeability Estimation using modified Kozeny-Carman model

The most commonly available model that connects permeability to porosity for a granular particle was
proposed by Kozeny (1927), and modified by Carman (1937, 1956), called the Kozeny-Carman
model. This can be expressed as shown in Eq. (12), where k is the permeability, ∅ is the porosity, S
the surface area per unit volume, c the Kozeny constant, and t being the tortuosity of the medium.
∅3
𝑘= … (12)
𝑡𝑐S2
We can assume that the surface area per unit volume and tortuosity of the medium do not change with
variation in effective stress 𝜀 (Chen et al., 2016). Therefore we have the following Eq. (13):
𝜕𝑘 3∅2 𝜕∅
= 2 2 … (13)
𝜕𝜀 𝑐𝑡 𝑆 𝜕𝜀
Defining the compressibility factor cp of the porous medium and integrating the above equation, we
get the following:
−1 𝜕∅
𝑐𝑝 = ∅ 𝜕𝜀 𝑘 = 𝑘o𝑒-3cp(ε-εo) … (14)

Study Area

The area where the study was carried out lies in the F3 Block in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.
The dataset was acquired by dGB Earth Sciences, and is available openly online. For this analysis we
used gamma ray logs, density logs, and testing data from well F02-01. The stratigraphic age of the
sediments was below the Upper Graben Formation. The environment of deposition was restricted with
sublittaral to non-marine and paludal to alluvial sediments of cretaceous to Triassic age.

Application

In the given study area, the well logs having density and gamma ray logs were taken for the first part
of the analysis, i.e. for finding the permeability using the fractal approach. The logs used in the
analysis are displayed in Fig. 1. The volume of shale was first calculated and then the porosity was
calculated from the density log and was corrected for the effects of shale. The permeability was then
estimated using the fractal approach. The average mean grain radius was taken to be 63 µm, after
going through core reports. The permeability then was also estimated using the second approach,
through the modified Kozeny-Carman equations. There were testing data available at a few point
which were used to find out ko and 𝜀𝑜. The results of both the analysis can be seen in Fig. 2.

Discussion

The raw logs used as input are seen in Fig. 1(a) & (b) respectively. The volume of shale and the
density porosity were computed as shown in Fig. 1(c) & (d), respectively. The permeability estimated
using the fractal approach is a function of volume of shale and porosity. But the permeability
estimated using the modified Kozeny-Carmen model is majorly a function of porosity only. The
permeability obtained using the fractal approach is shown in Fig. 2(a), and can be seen to follow the
trend shown by volume of shale. Similarly the permeability obtained using the modified method of

79th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2017

Paris, France, 12-15 June 2017
 Figure 1(a) Gamma Ray Log Figure 1(b) Density Log Figure 1(c) Computed
Response Response Volume of Shale

Figure 1(d) Graph showing Figure 2(a) Computed Figure 2(b) Computed
variation of porosity Permeability based on Fractal Permeability based on Modified
Approach Kozeny-Carmen model

of Kozeny-Carmen as shown in Fig. 2(b), the permeability obtained using the modified Kozeny-
Carmen method as shown in Fig. 2(b), is seen to follow the trend of porosity obtained from density
log. But both the approaches suggest the presence of two sands, having a higher permeability than the
surrounding shales. The sands seem to have a higher permeability from the fractal approach, when
compared with the modified Kozeny-Carman model. For the first sand the permeability values
obtained are almost similar through both the approaches. But for the second sand the permeability
estimated using the fractal approach is considerably more than the second approach. A possible reason
for this could be that the porosity of the second sand is considerably lower than the first sand, which

79th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2017

Paris, France, 12-15 June 2017
 can have an effect on the permeability estimated using the second approach. But both the models are
able to predict the range of permeability values successfully.

Conclusion

The permeability of a sandstone reservoir was successfully estimated using two approaches, namely a
fractal approach and a modified Kozeny-Carman model. Both methods successfully estimated the
permeability closely with respect to each other. But when modeling the permeability of the reservoir,
one should always use a combined approach, as each method has its drawbacks which are overcome
in a combined approach.

Acknowledgement

We are thankful to dGB Earth Sciences for making the data publically available for research purpose.

References

Carman, P.C. [1937] Fluid flow through granular beds. Transactions Institution of Chemical
Engineers, 15 (1937), 150-166.

Carman, P.C. [1956] Flow of gases through porous media. Academic Press, New York, 182.

Chen, D., Pan, Z., Ye, Z., Hou, B., Wang, D., and Yuan, L. [2016] A unified permeability and
effective stress relationship for porous and fractured reservoir rocks. Journal of Natural Gas Science
and Engineering, 29, 401-412.

Kozeny, J. [1927] Über die kapillare Leitung des Wassersim Boden (AufstiegVersickerung und
Anwendeung auf die Bewässerung), Sitz. Ber, Akad. Wiss.Wien, math. Nat (Abt. IIa), 136a, 271–
306.

Pitchumani, R. and Ramakrishnan, B. [1999] Fractal geometry model for evaluating permeabilities of
porous preforms used in liquid composite modeling. International Journal of Heat Mass Transfer, 42,
2219-2232.

Vadapalli, U., Srivastava, R., Vedanti, N. and Dimri, V. [2014] Estimation of permeability of a
sandstone reservoir by a fractal and Monte Carlo simulation approach: a case study. Nonlinear
Processes in Geophysics, 21, 9-18.

Yu, B.M. and Cheng, P. [2002] A fractal permeability model for bi-dispersed porous media.
International Journal of Heat Mass Transfer, 45, 2983-2993.

79th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2017

Paris, France, 12-15 June 2017

View publication stats