Mixed-Wet Drainage and Imbibition Relative Permeabilities From the Diffuse Interface Theory
Paul Papatzacos, Svein Magne Skjaeveland · SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition · 2003
Abstract The Diffuse-Interface model for two-phase flow in porous media is applied to the invesigation of relative permeabilities in unsteady-state flows. It is shown that relative permeabilities have a transient regime where they can be significantly larger than 1. It is also shown that, when normalized by their endpoint values, relative permeabilities can be calculated from formulas involving thermodynamical and capillary pressure functions. The end-point relative permeabilities are linearly related to the fluid velocity, but the coefficients seem to be flow dependent.