Professional Documents
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Lec 11
Lec 11
for
Oilfield Units
Need for Unit Conversions
• Petroleum Engineers must be able to work with various unit
systems
– International scope of industry
• Unit systems used varies geographically
• Team members may not all be located in same geographical location
• Joint ventures between companies
– Particular units may be required at your location
• Legislated units for reporting and regulatory compliance
• Company protocol
Oilfield Units
• Oilfield units are non-coherent
– Newton’s 2nd Law (F=ma)
• SI: Force (Newton) is a derived unit to make equation coherent
• USCS: Mass (slugs) is a derived unit to make equation coherent
• AES, Oilfield Units: A unit conversion constant required (F=ma/g c )
– Darcy’s Law
• Darcy units: Permeability is a derived unit to make equation coherent
• SI: coherent (permeability unit is m2 )
• Oilfield Units: A unit conversion constant is required
– The constant may include geometry terms (integrated form)
– For gas flow, the constant may include standard temperature and pressure, even for
Darcy and SI units
q C k dΦ
vs
A μ ds
Learning Objectives
• Deriving unit conversion constants
– Given
• A physical relationship expressed as an equation, using coherent units or with a
correct conversion constant supplied
• and appropriate unit conversion factors between unit systems
– Find
• The required unit conversion constant (including its units) to express the
equation in a different unit system
Δp[psia] 0.068046[atm/psia]
Darcy’s Law - Oilfield Units
– Collecting the constants and canceling
dp ρ g dh
– where,
• p Pa = N/m2 = (kgm/s2)/(m2) = kg/(ms2)
kg/m3
• g 9.80665 m/s2
• h m
– A single term of the equation is replaced with the term in brackets having the
same units and meaning:
p
Term 2 p
p1
dp
2 zμ
g