Exact Solutions and Upscaling for 1D Two-Phase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Abstract

Upscaling of 1D two-phase flows in heterogeneous porous media is important in interpretation of laboratory coreflood data, streamline quasi 3D modeling, and numerical reservoir simulation. In 1D heterogeneous media with properties varying along the flow direction, phase permeabilities are coordinate-dependent. This yields the Buckley-Leverett equation with coordinate-dependent fractional flow f = f(s, x), which reflects the heterogeneity. So, an x-dependency is considered to reflect microscale heterogeneity and averaging over x—upscaling. This work aims to average or upscale the heterogeneous system to obtain the homogenized media with such fractional flow function F(S) that provides the same water-cut history at the reservoir outlet, x = 1. Thus, F(S) is an equivalent property of the medium. So far, the exact upscaling for 1D micro heterogeneous systems has not been derived. With the x-dependency of fractional flow, the Riemann invariant is flux f, which yields exact integration of 1D flow problems. The novel exact solutions are derived for flows with continuous saturation profile, transition of shock into continuous wave, transition of continuous wave into shock, and transport in heterogeneous piecewise-uniform rocks. The exact procedure of upscaling from f = f(s, x) to F(S) is as follows: the inverse function to the upscaled F(S) is equal to the averaged saturation over x of the inverse microscale function s = f ⁻¹(f, x). It was found that the Welge's method as applied to heterogeneous cores provides the upscaled F(S). For characteristic finite-difference scheme, the fluxes for microscale and upscaled-numerical-cell systems, coincide in all grid nodes.