Experimental Investigation of Permeability Reduction Due to Migration of Non-swelling Clay Minerals

Formation damage is reported during the secondary and tertiary stages of reservoir lifespan. One of the unpleasant sequences of formation damage caused by fine particles is permeability reduction due to pore plugging and bridging. The fine particles might exist initially in a porous medium or be introduced by external sources. In addition, there is a variety of particle types and sizes. The current research focuses on the effects of non-swelling clay minerals motions, such as the laminar ones found in Iranian sandstone reservoirs, on permeability. For this purpose, sand packs in various glass bead sizes and containing aluminum oxide as fine particles were designed to scrutinize the motion of fine particles under various pressure differences, flow rates, and concentrations. It was concluded that for each of the three sand packs regarded as the porous media in this study and composed of fine glass beads with different sizes, there is a critical flow rate as a function of glass bead size. For the flow rates lower than the critical flow rate, bridges form stably and lead to the most severe formation damage. After reaching the critical flow rate, the bridges weaken and break, and relative permeability will be independent of the flow rate. It was deduced that permeability reduction and formation damage are directly proportional to particle concentration and inversely proportional to glass bead size.

Keywords:

Critical flow rate , fine migration , Formation Damage , Permeability Reduction