Effect of Capillary Heterogeneity on Buckley-Leverett Displacement

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Abstract
Summary: The Buckley-Leverett (BL) equation has been routinely used for the description of immiscible displacement in laboratory Dperations and for parameter estimation and prediction. Recent advances, however, have led to a serious challenge of the validity of many of the traditional theories. For the case of BL displacement, most studies have examined heterogeneity effets as they relate to. viscous fingering. In this paper, we investigate the effects of capillary heterogeneity induced by variations in permeability in the direction of displacement. We study a variety of heterogeneity profiles, both uncorrelated and correlated spatially. We find that capillary heterogeneity significantly affects the saturation distributions, which closely follow the heterogeneity variation. The saturation response is stronger at lower rates, at more unfavorable mobility, under drainage conditions, and for smaller spatial correlations. The results are in agreement with available experimental data for primary drainage and secondary imbibition. They may be useful in the interpretation of saturation profiles and the identification of heterogeneity.

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