Theorical and Experimental Study of Particle Movement and Deposition in Porous Media During Water Injection

Theoretical and experimental study of particle movement and
deposition in porous media during water injection

J. Moghadasi
a,b
, H. Muller-Steinhagen
c,
*
, M. Jamialahmadi
a
, A. Sharif
b
a
Petroleum Engineering Department, Petroleum University, Ahwaz, Iran
b
Chemical and Process Engineering Department, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK
c
Institute for Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics,
German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany
Received 6 August 2003; accepted 23 January 2004
Abstract
The flow of particulate suspensions and brines in porous media is encountered in a wide range of industrial situations such as
oil production, soil erosion, and ground water pollution and in the operation of filter beds. Three major classes of such problems
are addressed in this paper, namely particle movement, deposition and filtration. Particle movement and deposition are known
to be serious problems in oil reservoirs where incompatible brine is brought into contact with the formation. Dramatic
reductions in permeability are observed in such cases due to the release of fine particles that subsequently plug flow channels
downstream.
An experimental investigation was undertaken to look into the possible causes of the injectivity loss in a typical Iranian
oilfield. Glass bead and sand beds were used to study the general behavior of fine particle movement and deposition in porous
media. The experiments were conducted with injection rates from 12.5 to 200 cm
3
/min. Aluminium oxide particles were
suspended in the injected water to simulate fine particle migration in porous media. The particles were injected at concentrations
ranging from 15 to 2000 ppm. It was observed that the build-up of flow resistance was mostly due to frontal face plugging. In
subsequent experiments, aluminium oxide particles were added to the glass beads to study the effect of particles initially present
in the glass bead pack.
A mathematical model is presented that simulates the porosity impairment by particle movement and deposition. This model
is based on the mass balance of particles flowing through the porous medium, and predicts the initial porosity and subsequently
its reduction with time. The equations are relatively general and can be used to model the permeability reduction for any given
pore or particle size distribution.
D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Scale formation; Particle movement; Porous media; Formation damage; Water injection
1. Introduction
An oil field is a natural accumulation of hydrocar-
bon in the pores of underground rocks, which are
called reservoir rocks, or simply reservoir. Hydro-
carbons are recovered from the reservoir by means
0920-4105/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2004.01.005
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-711-6862358; fax: +49-711-
6862712.
E-mail addresses: J.Moghadasi@surrey.ac.uk (J. Moghadasi),
hms@itw.uni-stuttgart.de (H. Muller-Steinhagen),
A.Sharif@surrey.ac.uk (A. Sharif).
www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 43 (2004) 163181
of wells drilled from the surface. When an oil reservoir
is connected to the surface by drilling, some of the oil
may be spontaneously produced because of the natural
pressure that exists in the reservoir. The amount of oil
produced by the energy of the reservoir itself, as well
as by pumping of individual wells to assist the natural
drive is known as primary oil recovery.
At the end of the primary production period, the
recovery factor is low, usually less than 25% of the
original oil in place. For improving oil recovery vari-
ous techniques are used to maintain reservoir pressure
and to sweep the oil towards the production wells.
Amongst these techniques are water injection, inert gas
injection, re-injection of produced gas and methods of
enhanced oil recovery. One of the most common
techniques is water injection. Injection wells are used
to inject fresh water, seawater or formation water into
oil reservoirs in order to maintain reservoir pressure or
sweep reservoir oil by water. Pressure maintaining
operations are generally referred to as secondary re-
covery or water flooding. Tertiary or enhanced recov-
ery procedures involve the use of surfactants and a
range of other chemicals in order to improve the
fraction of oil recovered from reservoirs. Polymer
solutions and foams are generally used for mobility
control of secondary and tertiary floods. During sec-
ondary and enhanced recovery, reductions of perme-
ability have been observed in many reservoirs. Several
sources are recognized as possibly contributing to this.
Most important, perhaps, is the so-called water sensi-
tivity of many formations, resulting in the phenomena
of particle movement, clay swelling and dissolution
and precipitating reactions. Particulate solids may
inadvertently be introduced into the porous media by
drilling damage and/or by injection of recovery fluids.
The solid particles found in injection may be in the
range of molecules forming colloidal solutions (less
than 1 Am) or larger, forming suspensions. Particles
moving along the flow path may be retained in porous
media as a result of various mechanisms such as
straining, changes in the hydrodynamic forces acting
on particles or changes in chemical properties such as
pH or salinity of medium or fluid. Formation perme-
ability can therefore be reduced by particle invasion
and geochemical transformation due to decreased or
plugged pore channels, resulting in loss of well injec-
tivity. Injection of water from any source can lead to
difficulties associated with materials dissolved or sus-
pended in the water. Suspended materials that might
plug the pores in the formation must be removed by
filtration. A field example is the offshore Siri field
(Moghadasi et al., 2003; Moghadasi et al., 2002) in the
southern Persian Gulf. The oil in this field comes from
a formation called Mishrif; this formation is common
between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Water
injection into the Siri field was started in 1984 with
9100 bbl/day in order to maintain the pressure and to
increase the oil recovery. However, the injectivity
decreased rapidly, until it was stopped in 1990 when
the water injection rate had dropped to only 2200 bbl/
Fig. 1. Water injection history in the Siri oil field (Moghadasi et al., 2002).
J. Moghadasi et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 43 (2004) 163181 164
day. The history of water injection in the Siri field is
shown in Fig. 1. There are two factors which play a role
in the deposition process during particle movement and
scaling. These are the characteristics of the porous
medium and the physical and chemical properties of
the injection fluid. The properties of the injection fluid
are temperature, concentration, and solution chemistry
with flow rate as an operational variable.
The aim of this paper is to present the results of an
experimental and theoretical study on the mechanisms
of formation damage caused by invasion of solid
particles and their deposition into a porous medium.
The parameters, which are independently varied, are
flow rate, and concentration.
2. Experimental set-up and procedure
Experiments were carried out using a test rig, which
is schematically shown in Fig. 2. The contents of the
stainless steel tank can be heated to approximately 90
jC using four band heaters mounted on the outside. A
small cooling water coil is installed inside the tank to
allow accurate control of the liquid temperature. The
thermocouple for determining the temperature inside
the tank is connected to a controller for the band
heaters power supply. Furthermore, a stirrer is placed
inside the tank to agitate the liquid and to provide a
uniform temperature. The speed of the peristaltic pump
can be varied from 0.5 to 55 rpm, so that the liquid
flow can be accurately adjusted. The maximum design
pressure of the pump is 3 bar, which is achieved by
using tubing with an internal diameter of 1.6 mm and a
wall thickness of 1.6 mm. The tubing is made from
Marprene II, a material that is resistant to water and
mineral oil.
The test section, which contains the porous medi-
um, is made of stainless steel pipe with an internal
diameter of 32 mm, a wall thickness of 5 mm and a
total length of 580 mm. Spiral and longitudinal
grooves to accommodate heating wire and thermo-
couples for measuring the wall temperature have been
milled in the outside of the pipe. Bores to insert
thermocouples for measuring the sand bed tempera-
ture, and opposite to them bores for pressure tapping,
have been drilled at locations shown in Fig. 3. The
cold-ended thermocoax heating wire is fitted inside
hemispherical grooves around the tube at a pitch of
8 mm, to give a heated area of 0.03488 m
2
. The power
(maximum 2000 W) is controlled to maintain the wall
temperature below the maximum operating tempera-
ture of around 200 jC. The test section has six

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the test rig.
pressure taps along its length, each of them connected
to a separate pressure transducer. All transducers have
been connected to a computer-controlled data acqui-
sition systems for on-line monitoring and processing
of the experimental results. An additional perspex test
section has been manufactured and installed for visual
observation of the deposition mechanisms.
To study particle deposition within a packed bed, a
well defined granular material, i.e. spherical glass
beads or wash sand, is packed in the column to form
a porous bed with a fixed porosity. When the bed is
fully packed, the porous medium fills the space
between the two screens at the ends of the test
section. The pore volume of the dry porous medium
is then filled with liquid supplied from a burette to
determine the porosity as the ratio of the required
volume of liquid divided by the total volume of the
bed. The same procedure is repeated several times for
each medium and the mean value taken to represent
the porosity of the medium. The properties of the
packing materials and of the investigated fluids are
given in Table 1.
Preliminary tests were performed to obtain the time
after which the bed was stabilized: Distilled water was
pumped through the bed for about 1 h. While all
operational variables of the system were kept con-
stant, pressure readings were taken at short time
intervals until steady state was reached. This was
usually achieved after about 20 min. At this time the
suspension was introduced into the test section under
investigation and the pressuretime data were gath-
ered for further processing, to yield information about
permeability reduction with time. The above proce-
dure was repeated for different fluid flow rates with
various solid particle concentrations. The range of
operating variables is given in Table 2. Similar experi-
Table 1
Physical properties of packing material
Packing
material
Particle size
range, Am
Mean particle
diameter, Am
Porosity Permeability,
m
2
Sand 180250 192 0.383 2.14e 11
250425 265 0.383 6.03e 11
400500 410 0.384 1.21e 10
1000 1000 0.385 7.27e 10
Glass 180300 245 0.379 4.41e 11
beads 250425 338 0.379 7.89e 11
400600 480 0.380 1.59e 10
1000 1000 0.383 7.05e 10
Fig. 3. Design of the test section.
ments were carried out to investigate the effect of
particle concentration on the variation of pressure
drop through the medium. The devised experiments
permit a thorough study of various parameters affect-
ing the pressure drop.
2.1. Preparation of the suspension
A predetermined amount of particles is mixed with
distilled water so that the desired concentration of the
suspension is obtained. The suspension is maintained
in the tank and stirred with a suitable impeller to
prevent the deposition of particles on the solid surfa-
ces of the tank. The temperature of the suspension is
monitored and kept constant during the injection
process. In all the deposition experiments, aluminium
oxide was the solid moving phase in the porous
media.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Clean bed experiments
Before carrying out any tests with suspensions, it
is first necessary to have adequate information
regarding the flow mechanisms in a clean medium.
When a fluid flows through a porous medium, the
pressure drop which develops along the bed in the
direction of flow is a function of system geometry,
bed voidage and the physical properties of bed and
fluid. The operating conditions can result in four
distinct flow regimes (Dybbs and Edwards, 1997):
Darcy or creeping flow, inertial flow, unsteady
laminar flow and chaotic (or turbulent) flow. In
the Darcian region the pressure gradient is propor-
tional to the flow rate and is mathematically
expressed by
u
K
l

Dp
Dx
_ _
1
The coefficient K for single-phase flow depends
only on the geometry of the porous medium. It is
Table 2
Range of operating parameters in single-phase experiments
Inlet temperature 2530 jC
Flow rate 12.5200 cm
3
/min
System pressure 122 kPa
Suspension viscosity 0.7902.0 cp
Specific gravity of
aluminium oxide
3.46 g/cm
3
Suspension concentration of
spherical aluminium oxide
152000 ppm
Solid particles mixed with
packing material
510 wt.%

Fig. 4. Variation of pressure drop as a function of axial distance.
called the specific or absolute permeability of the
medium; in the case of single-phase flow, this is
abbreviated as permeability. The measurements of
pressure drop as a function of axial distance are
presented in Fig. 4 for different liquid flow rates.
As predicted by Eq. (1), there is a linear relation-
ship between the pressure drop and the axial dis-
tance in the direction of flow. To investigate the
effect of the particle size, experimental data of
pressure gradient as a function of flow rate were
collected for various particle diameters. These data
are presented in Fig. 5. As can be observed, the
pressure gradient increases as the particle diameter
decreases. This plot also demonstrates the expected
linear relationship between pressure gradient and
flow rate.
Knowing the viscosity of the liquid saturating the
medium, the permeability of each medium can be
calculated using the slope of the best-fit straight line
through the data presented in Fig. 4 as the ratio of ul/K
in Eq. (1). The calculated permeabilities are also given
in Table 1.

Fig. 5. Variation of pressure drop as a function of flow rate.
Fig. 6. Variation of pressure drop as a function of time.
3.2. Particle movement experiments
The data obtained from the experiments are the
pressures measured by five transducers placed at 5
points along the test section, against time. The pres-
sure data are processed to calculate the permeability
and permeability ratio. Plots of pressure drop profile,
permeability and permeability ratio profile versus time
from experiments at various flow rates, particle con-
centrations and particle sizes are presented and dis-
cussed in the following sections.
3.2.1. Effect of suspension flow rates
To investigate the effect of injection flow rate on
pressure drop and permeability reduction a set of
tests were performed in which the concentration of
solid particles in the injected suspension was kept
constant at 1000 ppm while the injection rate was
Fig. 7. Variation of permeability ratio as a function of time.
varied in each test. Fig. 6 shows the variation of
pressure drop increase and Fig. 7 shows the
corresponding permeability decline as a function
of time; in the following figures, usually only the
permeability data are given. From Figs. 69, it is
obvious that there is significant permeability decline
of the porous medium, even at low flow rates. In
this study, the overall permeability of the porous
medium decreased between 10 and 70% of the
initial permeability. This decrease was affected
primarily by the concentration of suspended par-
ticles, their size and flow rate. The most severe
permeability decline always occurred in the first
and second sections of the porous bed (within the
first 16 cm of the test section). The fall in perme-
ability gradually decreased along the bed. In dis-
cussing the effect of flow rate on permeability
decline, the density of the suspended particles must
be considered. Large and denser particles have
larger mass than the smaller, lighter particles. Iner-
Fig. 10. Variation of pressure drop as a function of time.
tial and gravitational forces tend to remove these
larger particles from water flowing through a tor-
tuous pore space. The penetration of these particles
into the porous bed at high flow rates would be
less than that of smaller, lighter particles. Figs. 10
and 11 show the middle section (Section 2, 16
25.5 cm) pressure drop and permeability reduction
for this test. Comparing the middle section perme-
ability reduction at different flow rates with the
same concentration, the effect of particles accumu-
lating in the bed can be seen. In general, as more
particles reach the middle section of the bed,
higher-permeability decline should be observed
there. This figure shows that at lower flow rates,
transfer of particles to the mid section is also
increased. Hence, as the water velocity decreases,
Fig. 12. Exponential relationship between flow rate and permeability ratio.
the plugging rate also increases as a result of
clogging constrictions located in the early parts of
the flow path.
Concentration of the solid particles in the first part
of the test section causes the overall pressure gradient
to increase rapidly while that in the middle part
changes more gradually.
The important point to note in Figs. 611 is that
the permeability follows a definite trend in all the
sections of the porous medium. While the perme-
ability decline curves in all sections eventually level
off, this occurs in order of down-stream position.
This result suggests that the each section after some
time will come to a condition where most flow
channels have reached their particle capture limit.
Following this, particles may migrate along the flow
path in the porous medium by a mechanism of
capture and release. It is obvious that at the lower
injection rate, the permeability reduction is greater.
These curves show the role of plugging due to lower
Fig. 13. Variation of permeability ratio as a function of time, showing effect of concentration.
Fig. 14. Variation of permeability ratio as a function of time, showing effect of concentration.
flow rates as a permeability reduction phenomenon.
In a more general way, the plot of permeability ratio
versus logarithm of the flow rate (Fig. 12) has been
found to be linear for different pore volumes of fluid
injected. The following relationship has been found:
K
K
i
_ _
Q
2
K
K
i
_ _
Q
1
mln
Q
2
Q
1
_ _
2
The value of m can be expressed as an exponential
function of pore volume injected as follows:
m 1 e
aPVI
3
where, a is a constant, and PVI is the number of pore
volumes of fluid injected.
This simple relationship can be used to predict the
permeability decline for a similar material at any new
flow rate. From Fig. 12 it can be seen that the perme-
ability decline due to particle movement is not only a
function of injected pore volume, but also depends on
the flow rate. At higher flow rate, plugging is reduced
and therefore, the overall permeability remains higher.
3.2.2. Effect of suspension concentration
To study the effect of the concentration of solid
particles in the injection water on the permeability
reduction, a number of tests were carried out. In these
experiments the rate of injection fluid was kept
constant and the concentration of the suspended solid
particles in the injecting fluid was varied. These tests
were carried out at constant injection rates of 25 and
50 cm
3
/min, with particle concentrations of 500, 1000
and 2000 ppm. Fig. 13 shows the variation of perme-
ability decline with time for different concentrations at
these injection rates. This figure shows that by in-
creasing the concentration of solid particles in the
injecting fluid, sedimentation and plugging occurs
more rapidly and consequently, the permeability ratio
decreases more rapidly. Fig. 14 shows how the per-
meability decreases with time for different concen-
trations and different injection rates. Concentration
has a stronger effect on permeability reduction than
flow rate. Fig. 15, presented in semi-logarithmic
coordinates, confirms the exponential form of the
permeability decline with concentration.
3.2.3. Effect of particle size
To study the effect of particle size on permeabil-
ity reduction, a number of tests were carried out. In
these experiments, the concentration and rate of
fluid injection were kept constant and the particle
size varied. These tests were carried out at constant
injection rate of 25 cm
3
/min, 500 ppm concentration
and with spherical particle sizes of 7 and 16 Am.
Fig. 15. Exponential relationship between flow rate and permeability ratio.
Fig. 16 displays the effect of particle size on the
permeability decline. From this figure, it can be seen
that increasing particle size results in a greater
permeability decline in the test section. From a
practical point of view, the most important conclu-
sion from Figs. 1316 is that suspended solids can
cause serious injectivity problems that can affect oil
production. The cost of removing such damage,
through stimulation, also adds to the problem.
Therefore, it is extremely important to maintain very
low levels of suspended solids in any injected water
and a high flow rate.
3.2.4. Effect of particles initially present in the porous
medium
Even before the beginning of water injection, some
small particles will already be present in the porous
medium. When the water is injected into the porous
medium and the water velocity reaches their mobili-
zation velocity, these particles may move and cause
Fig. 16. Variation of permeability ratio as a function of time, showing effect of particle size.
Fig. 17. Variation of pressure drop as a function of time, showing effect of particles initially present in the porous medium.
some plugging, hence reducing the permeability of the
porous medium. To investigate this phenomenon and
its effect on permeability reduction, the following
experiments were carried out:
In the first run, the porous bed of glass beads was
filled with 4.5wt.% alumina particles of 7 Am size.
Pure water was then passed through the bed causing
the alumina particles to move along and to cause
throat plugging. Consequently, as shown in Fig. 17,
the pressure gradient across the glass bead medium
increases. The pressure increases initially very slowly
which means that the solid particles are moving ahead
slowly and substantial plugging and reduction of flow
path do not occur. After about 100 min, pressure drop
increases more rapidly. This indicates a period where
the solid particles have been mobilized in the porous
medium and many of the throats and pores are
becoming plugged, and hence the local cross-sectional
flow area for injected water is reduced. Another
phenomenon that is seen after about 140 minutes is
the cyclic reduction and increase in pressure. When
the pressure increases to a certain value, the plugs and
bridges that are present in the water flow path break, a
wider path becomes available for the water and
consequently a decrease in pressure drop occurs.
Renewed plugging subsequently causes the pressure
drop to increase again, until the higher pressure
gradient causes the plugs to break, again.
Fig. 18 shows the behavior of the system perme-
ability derived from the pressure drop data, as the
water is injected. At first, a slow permeability de-
crease in the glass bed is observed. Later this decrease
in permeability proceeds faster, and after about 140
minutes fluctuations in permeability become evident
as the bridges within the bed break down. This
suggests that the solid particles that are initially
present in the porous medium can cause permeability
reduction. If the injection system works with a con-
stant inlet pressure, loss of injectivity will occur.
3.3. Mathematical model for particle movement and
deposition in porous media
3.3.1. Basic assumptions
The mathematical expressions derived in this study
are based on the following assumptions:
(1) The solid particles are uniformly suspended in an
incompressible fluid.
(2) The porous medium is homogeneous, incompress-
ible and isotropic.
(3) The porous medium consists of a large number of
pore bodies, which are interconnected by pore
throats whose sizes are log-normally distributed.
(4) Fluid containing solid particles is injected into the
porous bed at a constant flow rate.
Fig. 18. Variation of permeability ratio as a function of time, showing effect of particles initially present in the porous medium.
3.3.2. Relationship between porosity and solid
particle concentration during particle deposition in
porous media
Consider an element of porous medium of length
DZ and cross-sectional area A with initial porosity /
i
through which the fluid containing solid particles is
being passed at the flow rate Q, as shown in Fig. 19.
The pore volume, V
p
of the element DZ of a
porous medium is given by
V
p
ADZ/
i
DV 4
where /
i
is the initial porosity and DV is the change
in volume due to deposition of solid particles in the
porous medium. Therefore, the new porosity / is
given by:
/
V
p
bulk volume

ADZ/
i
DV
ADZ
5
Using a material balance on the solids at a given
time in the element DZ, we obtain:
fVolume of solids initially in suspensiong
fvolume of solids remaining in suspensiong
volume of solids deposited
ADZ/
i
C
i
q
s
ADZ/
i
DVC
q
s
DV 6
or
DV
ADZ/
i
C
i
C
q
s
C
7
where C
i
is the initial particle concentration and q
s
is
the density of the solid particles. Substituting Eq. (7)
in Eq. (5), yields:
/ /
i

/
i
C
i
C
q
s
C
/
i
1
C
i
C
q
s
C
_ _
8
3.3.3. Deposition model
Consider again an element of the porous medium
of length Dx, cross-sectional area A and effective
initial porosity /
i
, but now with a flow of suspension
passing through it (Fig. 20).
The particle material balance on the stream of fluid
flowing through the elemental porous medium based
on the continuity equation can be represented by the
following expressions:
Rate of input of solids Rate of output of solids
Rate of accumulation of solids
The mass rate balance equation can be written as:
QC
s
QC
s

B
Bx
QC
s
D
s
A/
B
Bx
C
s
_ _
Dx
_ _ _ _
A Dx/
BC
s
Bt
9
Hence:
B
Bx
QC
s
D
s
A/
B
Bx
C
s
_ _
Dx ADx/
BC
s
Bt
10
For the operating conditions adjusted in the pres-
ent experiments, the pore space of the porous medi-
um is initially occupied by fluid, only, and the
concentration of solid particles is set to zero (Dullien,
1992). Therefore:
initial conditions: for tV0
l< x < 0; C
s
x; t C
si
0Vx l; C
s
x; t 0
and boundary condition: for t > 0
x Fl;
BC
Bx
0
x l; C
s
x; t 0
x l; C
s
x; t C
si

Fig. 19. Length segment of porous medium.
The solution of Eq. (10) using the above initial and
boundary conditions yields:
C
s
x; t
1
2
C
si
erfc
x/ ut
4D
s
t
p
_ _ _
exp
ux
D
s
_ _
erfc
x/ ut
4D
s
t
p
_ __
11
Consider the situation of solid particles which are
suspended in water and injected into a reservoir.
Compared with the dimension of the radius of the
injection well, the boundary of the reservoir can be
considered as an infinite boundary (Fig. 21). The
continuity equation for solid particles in the radial
system at constant flow rate can be written as:
B
Br
C
s
Q 2phrD
s
/
BC
s
Br
_ _
2phr/
s
BC
s
Bt
12
Rearranging Eq. (12), it can be written as:
2phrD
s
/
B
2
Br
2
C
s
Q 2phD
s
/
B
Br
C
s
2phr/
s
B
Bt
C
s
0 13
Let
2phr/ c 14
Eq. (13) together with the boundary conditions can be
written as:
B
2
Br
2
C
s

1
D
s
D
s
r

Q
c
_ _
B
Br
C
s

1
D
s
B
Bt
C
s
0 15
C
s
r; 0 0 16
C
s
l; t 0; C
s
r
w
; t C
si
17
The solution of Eq. (15) using the above boundary
conditions yields:
C
s
r; tC
si
exp ar r
w

b
D
s
r r
w
2bt
_ _
18
where
a
1
2D
s
Q
c

1
r
_ _ _ _
and b
1
4D
s
Q
c

1
r
_ _
2
19
3.3.4. Instantaneous porosity of the porous medium
As a result of particle penetration into the porous
bed, the porosity of the medium will change. The
instantaneous porosity / is calculated in analogy to
Eq. (8):
/ /
i
C
si
C
s
q
s
C
s
_ _
/
i
20
Note that the solid density is used in Eq. (20). This
will tend to be less than the mineral density for a
mono-mineralic solid because it will be porous to
some degree. For dry mineral solids, the solid density
will be related to the mineral density by Eq. (21).
q
solid
1 /
solid
q 21
3.3.5. Permeability calculation
The following power law relationship relating
initial and instantaneous porosity has been suggested
by Civan et al. (1989).
K
K
i
/
/
i
_ _
3
22
This model is used to predict the instantaneous
value of permeability in conjunction with the model
Fig. 20. Schematic diagram of one-dimensional model.
derived in the present study. Similarly, Kozeny (1927)
and Carman (1937) suggested:
K
K
i
/
/
i
_ _
3
1 /
i
1 /
_ _
2
23
3.3.6. Validation of the model
The model derived in this study (Eqs. (11) and
(18)) aims to predict the behavior of solid particles
contained in water during injection into a porous
medium in linear or radial systems. The model is
validated using parameters, which are employed in
the experiments, and the results are compared with
experimental data. When the model was run, the
diffusion coefficient of the solid particles, D
s
was
inferred for the overall degree of particle retention in
the porous medium.
Figs. 2224 show the results of the simulation
obtained using the one-dimensional model. The
Fig. 22. Measured and predicted variation of permeability ratio as a function of time.
Fig. 21. Schematic diagram of radial system used in the model.
comparison shows good agreement between the
modeling results and the experimental data for
the whole period of the experiments. It may,
therefore, be concluded that the model provides a
satisfactory prediction of the permeability decline
resulting from solid particles invasion into a porous
medium.
4. Conclusions
The permeability decline is affected by solid
particles concentration, flow rate and initial perme-
ability of the porous medium. High rates of perme-
ability damage occur under conditions of high
concentration of solid particles, small ratio of solid
Fig. 23. Measured and predicted variation of permeability ratio as a function of time.
Fig. 24. Measured and predicted variation of permeability ratio as a function of pore volume injected (time).
particle mean diameter to mean pore diameter as
well as low flow rates in low permeability porous
media. Low permeability porous media are more
sensitive to permeability damage caused by solid
particles invading pore spaces than porous media
of high permeability.
Solid particles that are initially present in the porous
medium can cause additional permeability reduction
when they become mobilized during water injection,
and subsequently deposit further downstream.
Permeability reduction takes place mostly in the
inlet zone of the injected medium. External filter
cakes on the front surface and deposits formed over
a short length after entering the porous medium are
not only a function of particle size, but also of the
concentration of solid particles.
The suggested model is capable of simulating
invasion of solid particles into porous media. It
reproduces the measured trends and values correctly.
Nomenclature
A cross-sectional area, m
2
C mass solid concentration, kg/m
3
C
s
mass solid concentration, kg/m
3
D
s
diffusion coefficient, m
2
/s
d
p
particle diameter, Am
dp pressure drop, N/m
2
dp/dx pressure gradient in x direction, N/m
3
erf error function
K permeability, m
2
h thickness of the layer in the injection zone
K
I
initial permeability, m
2
m slope
overall section measured over total length of porous
medium, Section 16 (41.5 cm)
p pressure, N/m
2
Dp/l pressure gradient, Pa/m
Dp pressure drop, Pa
Q
0
cumulative volume of fluid injected expressed
in terms of the initial undamaged pore
volume, m
3
Q volumetric flow rate, m
3
/s
r radial distance from the center of the well
bore, m
r
w
well radius, m
Re
m
modified Reynolds number defined as d
p
.q.
u.//l.(1 /)
T temperature, jC, K
t time, min, s
time of injection fluid injection in test section period
time, Q
o
/Q
u velocity of flowing phase through porous
medium, m/s
x distance from inlet face of test section or
core, m
z distance from inlet face of test section or
core, m
Greek Symbols
a empirical constant
b empirical constant
/ porosity
/
i
initial porosity
l fluid viscosity, kg/m s
q
s
particle grain density, kg/m
3
c conversion parameter
j gradient
Subscripts
hr hour
i initial or inlet
l liquid
L length
m matrix, mean and medium
PV pore volume
PVI pore volume injection, permeability variation
index
TC thermocouple
References
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Civan, F., Kapp, R., Ohen, M., Henry, A., 1989. Alteration of
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Dullien, F.A.L., 1992. Porous Media-Fluid Transport and Pore Struc-
ture, 2nd ed., Academic Press, Toronto, Canada, pp. 4250.
Dybbs, A., Edwards, R.V., 1997. Department of Fluid, Thermal and
Aerospace Science Report. FTAS/Tr (Case Western Reserve Uni-
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Theorical and Experimental Study of Particle Movement and Deposition in Porous Media During Water Injection

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Theoretical and experimental study of particle movement and

deposition in porous media during water injection

ber kapillare Leitung des Wassers im Boden.

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