Comparison of Pressure Drop in Horizontal Wellbore for 90 degree and 180 degree Perforation Phasing

The staged fracturing horizontal well has proven to be an attractive alternative for improving the development effect of a low permeability waterflood reservoir. Due to the coexistence of matrix, fracture, and horizontal wellbore, it remains a great challenge to accurately simulate the nonlinear flow behaviors in fractured porous media. Using a discrete fracture model to reduce the dimension of the fracture network, a two-parameter model is used to describe the nonlinear two-phase flow behavior, and the equivalent pipe flow equation is selected to estimate the horizontal wellbore pressure drop in the fractured low-permeability reservoir. A hybrid mathematical model for the nonlinear two-phase flow, including the effect of horizontal wellbore pressure drop in fractured porous media, is developed. A numerical scheme of the hybrid model is derived using the mimetic finite difference method and finite volume method. With a staggered five-spot flood system, the accuracy of the proposed model and the effect of fracture properties on nonlinear two-phase flow behaviors are further investigated. The results also show that with an increase of fracture length near injectors, the breakthrough time of injected water into the horizontal wellbore will be shorter, indicating a faster rise of the water cut, and a worse development effect. The impact of shortening fracture spacing is consistent with that of enlarging fracture length. Successful practice in modeling the complex waterflood behaviors for a 3-D heterogeneous reservoir provides powerful evidence for the practicability and reliability of our model.

Download Full-text

A New Comprehensive Model for Predicting the Pressure Drop of Flow in the Horizontal Wellbore

Journal of Energy Resources Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4027572 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 136 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Quan Zhang ◽

Zhiming Wang ◽

Xiaoqiu Wang ◽

Jiankang Yang

Keyword(s):

Pressure Drop ◽

Water Flow ◽

Single Phase ◽

Variable Mass ◽

Data Sets ◽

Comprehensive Model ◽

Flow Data ◽

Experimental Apparatus ◽

Oil Flow ◽

Horizontal Wellbore

Over the past two decades, the modeling of flow in a perforated pipe with influx through wall openings has been recognized as a key topic especially in the field of horizontal wells. In this paper, based on the theoretical analysis and previous research achievements, combining with the new measured data sets stemming from the large-scale experimental apparatus designed and constructed recently at China University of Petroleum (CUP), a new comprehensive model has been developed for the prediction of pressure drop regarding single-phase flow in horizontal perforated pipes with wall influx, in which new correlations for calculating the hydraulic friction factor and momentum correction factor of variable mass flow are given. The presented model is then implemented using the visual basic.net package and validated against two data sets obtained on single-phase water flow and single-phase oil flow. Predictions of the new model and frequently used Ouyang model are also compared based on the new experimental data. Results show that the model given in this article can not only properly represent the complex mechanisms of flow in the horizontal wellbore, such as the resistance caused by wall perforations and the drag reduction or so-called lubrication effect caused by wall injection, but also has a preferable prediction accuracy. Compared with the water flow data and the oil flow data, the absolute average percentage errors of the proposed model are, respectively, 4.5% and 5.0%, which demonstrates better performance and wider application range than Ouyang model.

Download Full-text

Modelling of Pressure Drop and Cuttings Concentration in Eccentric Narrow Horizontal Wellbore with Rotating Drillpipe

Journal of Applied Sciences ◽

10.3923/jas.2014.3263.3269 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (23) ◽

pp. 3263-3269 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Titus N. Ofei ◽

Sonny Irawan ◽

William Pao

Keyword(s):

Pressure Drop ◽

Horizontal Wellbore

Download Full-text

Effect of Accelerational Pressure Drop in a Horizontal Wellbore

10.2118/26519-ms ◽

1993 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Masaru Ihara ◽

Nobutoshi Shimizu

Keyword(s):

Pressure Drop ◽

Horizontal Wellbore

Download Full-text

Influence of Radial Flux Inflow Profile on Pressure Drop of Perforated Horizontal Wellbore

Journal of Energy Resources Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4028770 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 136 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

M. A. Abdulwahid ◽

I. N. Niranjan Kumar ◽

S. F. Dakhil

Keyword(s):

Shear Stress ◽

Pressure Drop ◽

Radial Flow ◽

Wall Friction ◽

Governing Equations ◽

Ansys Fluent ◽

Pressure Drops ◽

Radial Flux ◽

Horizontal Wellbore ◽

Inflow Profile

In this study, the authors have attempted to present five different profiles for a uniform radial influx through a perforated wellbore. The total pressure drop is not only frictional, accelerational and gravitational pressure drops, but also by the inflow pressure drop that is caused by the inflow through the perforation. The inflow through the wellbore model affects the shear stress due to the wall friction. The influence of inflow depends on the flow regime present in the wellbore. Numerical simulations were performed using ansys fluent 14-cfx, where the governing equations of mass and momentum were solved simultaneously, using the two equations of a standard k–ε turbulence model. The results proved that the behavior of wall shear stress followed the shape of the radial inflow, i.e., the shear stress increased with the increase of radial flow and decreased with the decrease of radial flow. It was found that the fluid influx has increased the apparent friction factor along the horizontal wellbore, but in some cases the influx is decreased.

Download Full-text