Dr.

Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

2.1 Permeability

It is important to distinguish between mass flow and filtration:

In the case of mass flow all particles in the field of flow are in motion, whereas in the case of
filtration, only a portion of the mass particles flows and the remaining part forms the flooded
framework.

2.2 Darcy’s Law

Darcy found that the flow through the sand filter corresponded to the following formula:
𝑆
𝑄 = 𝐾. . ℎ (2.1)
𝐿

Where

At the first World Oil Congress in 1933 the permeability was defined by Fancher, Lewis, and
Barnes. In the same year Wyckoff, Botset, Muskat and Reed suggested to give the unit of
permeability the name Darcy.

From that time on the equation is called Darcy’s Law:

𝐾 ∆𝑝
𝑞 = 𝐴. . (2.2)
𝜇 𝐿

where:

A is the cross-section of the porous medium perpendicular to the direction of flow

k is the permeability as a material property of the porous medium

L is the length of the porous media in direction of flow

Δp is the pressure difference along the porous medium

μ is the viscosity of the flowing fluid

 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Figure (2.1): Schematic diagram of DARCY’s experiment

2.3 Definition and Units of Permeability

Even today it is customary to use DARCY [D] as a unit of permeability. The permeability of a
porous media will be 1 [Darcy], if at a 1 [cm2] cross-section a fluid with 1 [cP] viscosity flowing
with a rate of 1 [cm3/s] will cause a pressure drop of 1 [atm/cm]:

By using the SI-units:

The relationship between the two units is:

 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Example (2.1)

A cylindrical core having a radius 2.54x10-2 [m] and length of 0.3 [m], was flooded with brine at
a steady rate of 1x10-6 [m3s-1], the differential pressure across the core was 10 [bar]. Calculate
the absolute permeability of the core. Assume brine viscosity 0.001 [Pa.s].

Solution

From Darcy’s law

2.4 Klinkenberg Effect

Klinkenberg noticed that the permeability of gas is not the same as for liquids and in addition the
gas permeability depends on pressure. Physically the Klinkenberg-effect may be explained by
the phenomenon of surface slipping of gases caused by the Brown motion. This surface slipping
decreases with increasing pressure. However, at low pressure this effect is responsible for the
deviation of the gas permeabilities.
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Figure (2.2): Variation in gas permeability with mean pressure and type of gas (from
Klinkenberg)

The correlation between gas permeability kg , liquid permeability kL and mean pressure inside
the core pm, is given by :
𝑏
𝑘𝑔 = 𝑘𝐿 (1 + ) (2.3)
𝑝𝑚

Where:

𝑏 = 6.9𝑘𝐿−0.36 (2.4)
The above equations can be combined and rearranged to give:

6.9𝑘𝐿0.64 + 𝑝𝑚 𝑘𝐿 − 𝑝𝑚 𝑘𝑔 = 0 (2.5)

Equation (2.5) can be used to calculate the absolute permeability when only one gas permeability
measurement (𝑘𝑔 ) of a core sample is made at 𝑝𝑚 . This nonlinear equation can be solved
iteratively by using the Newton-Raphson iterative methods. The proposed solution method can
be conveniently written as:

𝑓(𝑘𝑖 )
𝑘𝑖+1 = 𝑘𝑖 −
𝑓 ′ (𝑘𝑖 )

where 𝑘𝑖 = initial guess of the absolute permeability, mD

𝑘𝑖+1 = new permeability value to be used for the next iteration
𝑖 = iteration level
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

𝑓(𝑘𝑖 ) = Equation (2.5) as evaluated by using the assumed value of 𝑘𝑖

𝑓 ′ (𝑘𝑖 ) = first-derivative of Equation (2.5) as evaluated at 𝑘𝑖
The first derivative of Equation (2.5) with respect to 𝑘𝑖 is:

𝑓 ′ (𝑘𝑖 ) = 4.416𝑘𝑖−0.36 + 𝑝𝑚 (2.6)

The iterative procedure is repeated until convergence is achieved when 𝑓(𝑘𝑖 ) approaches zero or
when no changes in the calculated values of 𝑘𝑖 are observed.

Example (2.2)
The permeability of a core plug is measured by air. Only one measurement is made at a mean
pressure of 2.152 Psi. The air permeability is 46.6 mD. Estimate the absolute permeability of the
core sample. Compare the result with the actual absolute permeability of 23.66 mD.

Solution
Step 1: Substitute the given values of 𝑝𝑚 and 𝑘𝑔 into Equations (2.5) and (2.6), to give:
𝑓(𝑘𝑖 ) = 6.9𝑘𝑖0.64 + 2.152𝑘𝑖 − (2.152)(46.6)

𝑓 ′ (𝑘𝑖 ) = 4.416𝑘𝑖−0.36 + 2.152

Step 2: Assume 𝑘𝑖 = 30 and apply the Newton-Raphson method to find the required solution as
shown below.

After three iterations, the Newton-Raphson method converges to an absolute value for the
permeability of 22.848 mD.

Equation (2.2) can be expanded to describe flow in any porous medium where the geometry of
the system is not too complex to integrate. For example, the flow into a wellbore is not linear,
but is more often radial. Figure (2.3) illustrates the type of flow that is typical of that occurring in
the vicinity of a producing well. For a radial flow, Darcy’s equation in a differential form can be
written as:
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Figure (2.3): Radial flow model.

The term dL has been replaced by dr as the length term has now become a radius term. The
minus sign is no longer required for the radial system shown in Figure (2.3) as the radius
increases in the same direction as the pressure. In other words, as the radius increases going
away from the well bore, the pressure also increases. At any point in the reservoir, the cross-
sectional area across which flow occurs will be the surface area of a cylinder, which is 2πrh.
Since the cross-sectional area is related to r, then A must be included within the integral sign as
follows:
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

2𝜋𝑘ℎ(𝑝𝑒 −𝑝𝑤𝑓 )
𝑞= 𝑟 (2.7)
𝜇ln⁡( 𝑒 )
𝑟𝑤

The above equation assumes that the reservoir is homogeneous and is completely saturated with
a single liquid phase (appropriate modifications will be discussed in later sections to account for
the presence of other fluids), where:

Averaging Absolute Permeabilities

There are three simple permeability-averaging techniques that are commonly used to determine
an appropriate average permeability to represent an equivalent homogeneous system. These are:
• Weighted-average permeability
• Harmonic-average permeability
• Geometric-average permeability
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Weighted-Average Permeability

This averaging method is used to determine the average permeability of layered-parallel beds
with different permeabilities. Consider the case where the flow system is comprised of three
parallel layers that are separated from one another by thin impermeable barriers, i.e., no cross-
flow, as shown in Figure (2.4). All the layers have the same width w with a cross-sectional area
of A.

Figure (2.4): Linear flow through layered beds.

The flow from each layer can be calculated by applying Darcy’s equation
in a linear form as expressed by Equation (2.2), to give:
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

∆𝑝 = 𝑝1 − 𝑝2
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

∑𝑛
𝑗=1 𝑘𝑗 ℎ𝑗
𝑘𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∑𝑛
(2.8)
𝑗=1 ℎ𝑗

Equation (2.8) is commonly used to determine the average permeability of a reservoir from core
analysis data.

Figure (2.5) shows a similar layered system with variable layers width. Assuming no cross-flow
between the layers, the average permeability can be approximated in a manner similar to the
above derivation to give:

∑𝑛
𝑗=1 𝑘𝑗 𝐴𝑗
𝑘𝑎𝑣𝑔 = ∑𝑛
(2.9)
𝑗=1 𝐴𝑗
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Figure (2.5): Linear flow through layered beds with variable area.

Example (2.3)
Given the following permeability data from a core analysis report, calculate the average
permeability of the reservoir.
 Dr. Farhan Altaee 2nd semester/Lecture Two

Self Assessment
1. What is the relationship between porosity permeability and sediment size?

2. Why sand has a low porosity but a high permeability?

3. What factors affect porosity and permeability?

4. What is a good porosity percentage?

5. What factors affect porosity?

6. What is the relationship between particle size and permeability?

7. Why is porosity and permeability important?

8. What are the types of porosity?

9. What are the 3 types of permeability?

10. What is effective permeability?