A LOOK AT BREAK-THROUGH AND END-POINT DATA FROM REPEATED WATER-FLOOD EXPERIMENTS IN GLASS BEAD-PACKS AND SAND-PACKS

摘要

Experimental data from a multi-variate set of water-flood experiments in sand-packs and glass bead-packs are presented and discussed. Previously [1], the JBN relative permeability curves were shown and a statistical analysis performed to infer significant effects on the interpreted curves. The present paper examines the uninterpreted data, i.e., the capillary number and oil productions (average saturation of water) at break-through of the water phase and at the end-point of each experiment. Over 90 experiments were performed in vertically-orientated sand-packs and glass bead-packs. The experimental variables examined were the pressure drop across the media-pack, which was maintained constant during each experiment, the viscosity of the mineral oil displaced, and the absolute permeability of the medium, where the wettabilities of the glass beads and silica sand were assumed to be similar. The Rapoport and Leas criterion for a stabilized waterflood was calculated at the point of break-through and a trend with saturation was not seen. The dimensionless Lake stability criterion was also calculated from the experimental data but no evident trend in the results was seen to indicate stability in the water-floods.