Sharif Digital Repository

The petroleum industry tends to paint an optimistic picture with respect to future petroleum availability. In order to anticipate demand, the size of connected volume of hydrocarbon of fields needs to be known. During the early stage of life of a reservoir, due to the lake of certain data, connected volume of hydrocarbon is usually based on analogues or rules of thumb and not detailed reservoir modeling. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce physically-based methodologies to make an estimation of connected volume of hydrocarbon. Percolation theory is used to estimate the connected volume of hydrocarbon very fast. Furthermore, the result has been validated against areal field... 

The drainage of oil under gravity forces is an efficient method because it can farther reduce the remaining oil saturation to below that obtained after water flooding. This paper describes a series of visual experiments under forced gas invasion with special attention to the effects of wettability. From oil production history and image analysis, we examine a threshold criterion for displacement stability that is consistent with the results of gradient percolation theory. The effect of the destabilized front velocity on oil recovery and residual saturation is investigated for both wettability conditions. Different recovery rates occur with different fluid morphologies, which depend on the... 

Complicated sedimentary processes control the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities. This serves to make the nature of the fluid flow in the hydrocarbon reservoirs immensely complex. Proper modeling of these heterogeneities and evaluation of their connectivity are crucial and affects all aspects of fluid flow. Since the natural variability of heterogeneity occurs in a myriad of length scales, accurate modeling of the rock type connectivity requires a very fine scheme, which is computationally very expensive. Hence, this makes other alternative methods such as the percolation approach attractive and necessary. The percolation approach considers the hypothesis that a reservoir can... 

The connectivity of high conductivity pathways in geological formations depend on the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities that may appear on various length scales. Appropriate modeling of this is crucial within in hydrology and petroleum systems. The approach taken in this study is to use percolation theory to quantify the connectivity, hydraulic conductivity, and breakthrough time behavior between an injector and a producer within such systems. In particular, a three-dimensional overlapping sandbody model is considered which assumes that the geological formation can be split into either conductive flow units (i. e., good sands) or non-conductive units (i. e., poor sands). The... 

The knowledge of the conductivity across the reservoir that is based on the swept fraction controls the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon in the secondary displacement processes. Most of the time, we need a fast estimation of the conductivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. In this study connectivity and conductivity percolation models are developed and the universal exponents for connectivity and conductivity in fractured reservoir as well as their dependency on the correlation length are investigated. For L< ξ the... 

The standard percolation theory uses objects of the same size. Moreover, it has long been observed that the percolation properties of the systems with a finite distribution of sizes are controlled by an effective size and consequently, the universality of the percolation theory is still valid. In this study, the effect of power law size distribution on the critical exponents of the percolation theory of the two dimensional models is investigated. Two different object shapes i.e., stick-shaped and square are considered. These two shapes are the representative of the fractures in fracture reservoirs and the sandbodies in clastic reservoirs. The finite size scaling arguments are used for the... 

The knowledge of the conductivity across the reservoir that is based on the swept fraction controls the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon in the secondary displacement processes. Most of the time, we need a fast estimation of the conductivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. In this study connectivity and conductivity percolation models are developed and the universal exponents for connectivity and conductivity in fractured reservoir as well as their dependency on the correlation length are investigated. For L< ξ the... 

The connectivity between two points in porous media is important for evaluating hydrocarbon recovery in underground reservoirs or toxic migration in waste disposal. For example, the connectivity between a producer and an injector in a hydrocarbon reservoir impact the fluid dispersion throughout the system. The conventional approach, flow simulation, is computationally very expensive and time consuming. Alternative method employs percolation theory. Classical percolation approach investigates the connectivity between two lines (representing the wells) in 2D cross sectional models whereas we look for the connectivity between two points (representing the wells) in 2D aerial models. In this... 

In this paper we present new methods to estimate the effective permeability (keff) of heterogeneous porous media with a wide distribution of permeabilities and various underlying structures, using percolation concepts. We first set a threshold permeability (kth) on the permeability density function and use standard algorithms from percolation theory to check whether the high permeable grid blocks (i.e., those with permeability higher than kth) with occupied fraction of “p” first forms a cluster connecting two opposite sides of the system in the direction of the flow (high permeability flow pathway). Then we estimate the effective permeability of the heterogeneous porous media in different... 

Reservoir characterization, especially during early stages of reservoir life, is very uncertain, due to the scarcity of data. Reservoir connectivity and permeability evaluation is of great importance in reservoir characterization. The conventional approach to addressing this is computationally very expensive and time consuming. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce much simpler alternative methods. In this paper, we use a statistical approach called the percolation theory, which considers a hypothesis wherein the reservoir can be split into either permeable (i.e. sand/fracture) or impermeable flow units (i.e. shale/matrix), and assumes that the connectivity of permeability... 

Complicated sedimentary processes control the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities. This serves to make the nature of the fluid flow in the hydrocarbon reservoirs immensely complex. Proper modeling of these heterogeneities and evaluation of their connectivity are crucial and affects all aspects of fluid flow. Since the natural variability of heterogeneity occurs in a myriad of length scales, accurate modeling of the rock type connectivity requires a very fine scheme, which is computationally very expensive. Hence, this makes other alternative methods such as the percolation approach attractive and necessary. The percolation approach considers the hypothesis that a reservoir can... 

The connectivity of high conductivity pathways in geological formations depend on the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities that may appear on various length scales. Appropriate modeling of this is crucial within in hydrology and petroleum systems. The approach taken in this study is to use percolation theory to quantify the connectivity, hydraulic conductivity, and breakthrough time behavior between an injector and a producer within such systems. In particular, a three-dimensional overlapping sandbody model is considered which assumes that the geological formation can be split into either conductive flow units (i. e., good sands) or non-conductive units (i. e., poor sands). The... 

Reservoir characterization, especially during early stages of reservoir life, is very uncertain, due to the scarcity of data. Reservoir connectivity and permeability evaluation is of great importance in reservoir characterization. The conventional approach to addressing this is computationally very expensive and time consuming. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce much simpler alternative methods. In this paper, we use a statistical approach called the percolation theory, which considers a hypothesis wherein the reservoir can be split into either permeable (i.e. sand/fracture) or impermeable flow units (i.e. shale/matrix), and assumes that the connectivity of permeability... 

Dual phase (DP) steels with network and fibrous martensite were produced by intercritical annealing heat treatment cycles. Some of these steels were deformed at dynamic strain aging temperatures. Room temperature tensile tests of specimens deformed at 300 °C showed that both yield and ultimate tensile strengths for both morphologies increased, while total elongation decreased. Fatigue test results before and after high temperature deformation showed that dynamic strain aging has a stronger effect on fatigue properties of dual phase steels with fibrous martensite. Cracks in DP steels with fibrous martensite propagate in a tortuous path in soft ferrite phase, while they pass of both hard and... 

The semi-empirical Kozeny–Carman (KC) equation is the widely used equation for determining permeability of porous media. Recent studies have shown that KC coefficient (CKC ) is a function of porous media parameters. In this study, the relation between parameters of randomly generated porous media is investigated to improve permeability prediction. In particular, site percolation theory is applied to construct random porous media. The static parameters of porous media, including porosity and specific surface area, are evaluated from porous media structure, and dynamic parameters, tortuosity and permeability, are derived from the results of Lattice Boltzmann fluid flow simulation.... 

The knowledge of the connectivity across the reservoir not only helps to find out the potential oil recovery within a particular well configuration but also affects on the other reservoir engineering decisions such as infill drilling. Connectivity also controls the swept fraction of the hydrocarbon in place in secondary displacement other than the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon. Most of the time we need a fast estimation of connectivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. During this study a percolation model is developed... 

Flow through porous media depends strongly on the spatial distribution of the geological heterogeneities which appear on all length scales. We lack precise information about heterogeneity distribution on various scales, from pore level to reservoir scale. However, some sources provide suitable information. At pore scale, for example, the micro-CT images show considerable insights into pore space structures and play valuable role in porous media characterization. The consequence of all geological heterogeneities is a great deal of uncertainty in dynamic performance of porous media which can be investigated using percolation theory. The main percolation quantities include the connected pore... 

In this investigation, a reactor model for prediction of the deactivation behavior of MTO's porous catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is developed. Effect of coking on molecular transport in the porous structure of SAPO-34 has been simulated using the percolation theory. Thermal effects of the reaction were considered in the model and the temperature profile of the gas stream in the reactor was predicted. The predicted loss in catalyst activity with time-on-stream was in very good agreement with the experimental data. The resulting coke deposition and gas temperature profiles along the length of reactor suggested a reaction front moving toward the outlet of the fixed bed reactor at the... 

Oil reservoirs are very complex with geological heterogeneities that appear on all scales. Proper modeling of the spatial distribution of these heterogeneities is crucial, affecting all aspects of flow and, consequently, the reservoir performance. Reservoir connectivity and conductivity evaluation is of great importance for decision-making on various possible development scenarios including infill drilling projects. This can be addressed by using the percolation theory approach. This statistical approach considers a hypothesis that the reservoir can be split into either permeable (good sands) or impermeable flow units (poor sands) and assumes that the continuity of permeability contrasts... 

Graphene reinforced polymer derived carbon (carbon/graphene) aerogels were synthesized by carbonization of novolac/graphene oxide aerogels. Novolac/graphene oxide aerogels were synthesized using solvent-saturated-vapor-atmosphere technique. To this aim, 20 wt% solution of novolac resin with 0, 2, and 5 wt% graphene oxide in 2-propanol were made and were cured in an autoclave. Wet aerogels were dried in air and were carbonized at 800 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. Eliminating the time-consuming methods of drying like supercritical and freeze drying is one of the advantages of this method of synthesis of organic aerogles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron...