Design and Development of a Test Facility to Study Two-Phase Steam/Water Flowin Porous Media

Abstract

The concept of relative permeability is the key concept in extending Darcy's law for single phase flow through porous media to the two-phase flow regime. Relative permeability functions are needed for simulation studies of two-phase geothermal reservoirs. These are poorly known in spite of considerable theoretical and experimental investigations during the last decade. Since no conclusive results exist, many investigators use ad hoc parametr i z at i o n, or adopt results obtained from flow of o i l and gas (Corey,1954). It has been shown by Reda and Eaton (1980) that this can lead to serious deficiencies. Sensitivity of the relative permeability curves for prediction of mass flow rate and flowing enthalpy into geothermal wells has been studied by many investigators ( eg. Eaton and Reda (1980), Bodvarsson e t a1 (1980), Sun and Ershagi (1979) etc.) It can be concluded from these studies that the behavior of a two-phase steam water reservoir depends greatly on the r e l at i v e permeability curves used. Hence, there exists a need for obtaining reliable relative permeability functions.