Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes

The relationship between P-wave velocity and fluid saturation in a porous medium is of importance for reservoir rock characterization. Forced imbibition experiments in the laboratory reveal rather complicated velocity–saturation relations, including rollover-like patterns induced by injection rate c...

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Main Authors: Liu, J., Müller, T., Qi, Q., Lebedev, Maxim, Sun, W.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32691
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author Liu, J.
Müller, T.
Qi, Q.
Lebedev, Maxim
Sun, W.
author_facet Liu, J.
Müller, T.
Qi, Q.
Lebedev, Maxim
Sun, W.
author_sort Liu, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The relationship between P-wave velocity and fluid saturation in a porous medium is of importance for reservoir rock characterization. Forced imbibition experiments in the laboratory reveal rather complicated velocity–saturation relations, including rollover-like patterns induced by injection rate changes. Poroelasticity theory-based patchy saturation models using a constant fluid patch size are not able to describe these velocity–saturation relations. Therefore, we incorporate a saturation-dependent patch size function into two models for patchy saturation. This recipe allows us to model observed velocity–saturation relations obtained for different and variable injection rates. The results reveal an increase in patch size with fluid saturation and show a reduction in the patch size for decreasing injection rate. This indicates that there can exist a distinct relation between patch size and injection rate. We assess the relative importance of capillarity on velocity–saturation relations and find that capillarity stiffening impairs the impact of patch size changes. Capillarity stiffening appears to be a plausible explanation when a decrease in the injection rate is expected to boost the importance of capillarity.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:29:12Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Wiley-Blackwell
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-326912017-09-13T15:27:38Z Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes Liu, J. Müller, T. Qi, Q. Lebedev, Maxim Sun, W. The relationship between P-wave velocity and fluid saturation in a porous medium is of importance for reservoir rock characterization. Forced imbibition experiments in the laboratory reveal rather complicated velocity–saturation relations, including rollover-like patterns induced by injection rate changes. Poroelasticity theory-based patchy saturation models using a constant fluid patch size are not able to describe these velocity–saturation relations. Therefore, we incorporate a saturation-dependent patch size function into two models for patchy saturation. This recipe allows us to model observed velocity–saturation relations obtained for different and variable injection rates. The results reveal an increase in patch size with fluid saturation and show a reduction in the patch size for decreasing injection rate. This indicates that there can exist a distinct relation between patch size and injection rate. We assess the relative importance of capillarity on velocity–saturation relations and find that capillarity stiffening impairs the impact of patch size changes. Capillarity stiffening appears to be a plausible explanation when a decrease in the injection rate is expected to boost the importance of capillarity. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32691 10.1111/1365-2478.12376 Wiley-Blackwell restricted
spellingShingle Liu, J.
Müller, T.
Qi, Q.
Lebedev, Maxim
Sun, W.
Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title_full Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title_fullStr Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title_full_unstemmed Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title_short Velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: Modelling the effect of injection rate changes
title_sort velocity-saturation relation in partially saturated rocks: modelling the effect of injection rate changes
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32691