MATHEMATICAL BASIS FOR PRESSURE ANALYSIS METHODS, direction i, The symbols ke, ky and k, are the permea- bilities of the rock in the indicated directions. For radial flow, neglecting gravity, Darcy's law be- comes In the case of flow at high velocities, Darcy's law is no longer valid, It has been found that a quadratic ve- locity correction term can be added to modify Darcy's Jaw. In this ease the flow law becomes he ® a Due, where D, is a constant that is a function of the pore structure of the porous medium and ¢ is the direction of flow, The reader who is interested in so-called non- Darey flow is referred to the papers by Houpeurt®* or Ramey". The mathematical considerations in,this chap- ter are based on flow which obeys Darcy's law. Various cquitions of state are used in deriving the flow equations. An equation of state specifies the depen- dence of fluid density-p on the fluid pressure p and temperature T. Thus, depending on the actual fiuid(s) present, an appropriate equation of state will be chosen. ‘Throughout this Monograph isothermal flow is assumed so that the equation of state will depend only on pres- Before presenting the differential equations for flow through porous media, we should point out that a dif- ferential equation describes only the physical law or Jaws which apply to a situation. To obtain a solution to a specific flow problem, one must have not only the ifferential equation, but also the boundary and initial conditions that characterize the particular situation of interest. < a Fig. 2.4 Volume element for derivation of continuity equat 2.2 The Continuity Equation In this section we will develop a mathematical state ‘ment of the continuity principle, By subsequent comb nation of the continuity equation with Darcy's law an equations of state, we can derive a family of differenti: equations which describes various flow situations. W begin by considering a single fluid flowing through porous medium of porosity . We choose an arbitrat volume clement within the flow region and apply tt continuity statement presented in the previous section Since our primary interest in this Monograph is radial flow, we shall derive the continuity equation a} plicable for radial flow as well as the more gener: three-dimensional case. We first consider the three-6 mensional case and choose as our arbitrary volun the rectangular parallelepiped shown in Fig. 2.14. The volumetric components of flow into the eleme in the x, y and z directions are denoted by u., Uy at respectively. These are volumetric flow rates p unit of cross-sectional area, Thus, the mass flow ra into the element in the x-direction is aly 8 The mass flow rate in the x-direction out of the eleme Ay Az [ptt (pue)] , where (et) is the change in mass ux that occu within the element. The net flow rate in the (amount-in less the amount-out) is — ay ag A(te) Similar expressions ean be written for the y and z’ rections. Assuming no mass is generated or lost in t clement, the amount of net mass change in the eleme a & tion: (A) in three space dimensions; and (B) for radial Now.6 ina time increment Af can be expressed as = At [ACpue) Ay Az +ACpty) Bz Ax + SCpuadax Syl = pdx Ay de ~ tea ay ac ‘This is simply @ direct application of the continuity prin- ciple. Dividing the equation by Ax ay Az At yields — [Ae OD, Sy = GPa Ete, Proceeding to the limit as Ax, Ay, Az and af approach eto gives a a a a Felted + Ce) tae (Me) = — Hy PD ae 23) ‘This equation is the continuity equation (in Cartesian form) for flow of 2 fluid in a porous medium. ‘The continuity equation for radial flow follows from a similar development. If we consider the elemental vol- lume as shown on Fig. 2-1B, then the following mass balance can be written: = ar [ser an agen or eto] \ a. seharar| ~ gehorar This reduces to I or-maia) = — 28 and since a (pit) /Ar> ~ @(pu,) /ar (23a) a a Zoom) = —% (0) Eq, 2.3a is the continuity equation for radial flow. To derive differential equations for fuid flow in a porous medium, we must next combine Darcy's law with the continuity equations. For the three-dimen- sional case, substitution of Eq, 2.2 into By, 2.3 vields 2 fake (20 eee e(e+*)] (pe) es OMY 2 (ft 2) 4 2(He2) « aE be yy, a Eq. 2.4 represents a general form for the combination cf the continuity equation and Darcy’s law. The final differential equation which will result from this equa- tion depends on the fluid and the equation of state of ea ror the radial flow case we obtain in similar man- ner: [PRESSURE BUILDUP AND FLOW TESTS IN WELLS ( Toke Op) _ Tule F 2.3. Single-Phase Liquid Flow ‘An important class of flow equations results for single-phase flow. The most important of these, in the ‘context of this Monograph, is the equation for isother- mal flow of fluids of small and constant cornptessibility. ‘The compressibility of a fluid is defined as the relative change in fluid volume per unit change in pressure, of Law vp ‘This may also be writen Za)... 2s) If ¢ is constant then the above relationship can be integrated to yield p= pew 6. (26) whore pis the value of p at some reference pressure py ‘This particular equation of state applies rather well to most liquids. JE we introduce the equation of sate of Eq, 2.6 into Eq. 2.4, assume the viscosity is constant and neglect ‘ 1a ravi ores then (sine 1% = 03 ‘ wey ® we ey a)? #4(5) @o\! 1, (2 Ake, OP Phy. “ap Ake +E) | a5 S + EE) a ap 3b i. = Ew eS If c is small, it the permeability is constant and iso- tropic, if the porosity is constant and if it is assumed that the pressure gradients involved are small 50 that the gradient squared terms may be neglected, the fore- going reduces t0 ap. ep wet oe tor For radial flow, combination of Eqs. 2.6 and 2.5 yields (viscosity constant) (2.8) La a), 1%, op, (ep) ta(? Tart (ar, gue te a “Ta establish this relationship we have made use of 453 a Fon= 0% poh 9 SeMATHEMATICAL BASIS FOR PRESSURE ANALYSIS METHODS If we assume constant permeability and porosity, con- ity, and that (2) is negligibly small, the above equation becomes 1a(,%)_ >, 1 ep _ se ap Pa ap rk Fe “This equation is one of the most often used in petroleum engineering — the equation for radial flow of a fuid of small and constant compressibility. It is quite important to note that small pressure gradients, constant rock properties, and a fluid of small and constant com- pressibility must be assumed to obtain this equation from the original nonlinear equation with which we began. The reader should keep these assumptions in mind since solutions to this particular equation form the foundation of pressure analysis techniques. Eq. 2.8 and Eq. 2.9 are called difusivity equations stant and small compressil 29) is called the hydraulic diffu- and the constant, fie sivity, Historically, this equation fist arose in the study of heat conduction. Lord Kelvin called a corresponding constant in the heat-conduction equation the thermal diffusivity. Equations similar to Eq, 2.8 also arise in the study of diffusion and electrical potential distribu- tion. Equations of this general type are known as the diffusivity equation. If we wish to obtain the differential equation for flow of a fluid of small and constant compressibility, but for the case of pressure-dependent porosity and permeability, we can further refine Eq. 2.7. If we assume constant viscosity, isotropic permeability and neglect gravity, we obtain #7 #0 (2) (2) 4 (2) wee ae tel(a) (5) “Ge 1 [ap ak , ap a ape] _ duc tp, wm, gl ax ox iy ce |” kw Re (2.10) ‘This equation can be simplified somewhat by noting that ak ap pee (and similarly for y and z), and If we rearrange Eq. 2.10 it now becomes ap Lak) ([apy? , feey® = ; NC “Ls +P) aHero® ep % Bet THe aap 7 1 ae where cy = 2, and where both the porosity and permeability are pressure-dependent. In cases in which the gradient squared terms can be neglected, Eq. 2.11 can be reduced to *p a Fer Petak. . sa If Eq. 2.11 is expressed for radial flow it becomes (LR) (2) =A ee= on Te (2.413) ay co 2.4 Single-Phase Gas Flow ‘An important class of single-fuid ow equations is that describing flow of gas through @ porous medium, Gas flow cquations are different than those for liqui flow in that the equations of state which are used are quite different in functional form from those for liquids. ‘The equation of state for an ideal gas is given by the ideal gas law as pV = PRT, where V is the volume occupied by the mass m of gas of molecular weight M, R is the gas law constant and T is the absolute temperature. Since the density, » = M “RT From kinetic theory, the viscosity of an ideal gas depends only upon temperature. ‘Thus, for constant ‘gas viscosity and constant rock properties, and neg- lecting gravity, Eq. 2.4 becomes a(, ), 2), 2/3) _ su a? 2)+a(eZ)+a(PE ka woe ee (2.14) ‘This equation can be rewritten as Rpt dpt ap _ Dou Ap Tae tye ee a Cy) In the case of radial flow Eq. 2.15 becomes Spt 1 apts, dm ap _on ap?) L“ Balr rs | Tai "lees 7 [me 2.16) f Either of the two right-hand forms is often used. This equation is nonlinear and has been solved mainly by numerical methods