Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Fluid Flow and Permeability

175
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Viscosity describes the shear stresses that

develop in a flowing fluid.
V

z
Fluid
Velocity
Profile
x
Stationary
Shear stress in the fluid is proportional to the fluid
velocity gradient. ∂V x
σ xz = η
∂z
where η is the viscosity. Or in terms of the strain
rate: ∂ε
∂ε xz 1 ∂Vx xz
= σ xz = 2η
∂t 2 ∂z ∂t
Units: 1Poise = 1 dyne − sec = 0.1 newton − sec
2 2
cm m

Water at 20oC η ≈ .01Poise ≈ 1centiPoise

176
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Darcy found experimentally that fluid diffuses

through a porous medium according to the relation
Δl

P + ΔP •
U P

Darcy’s Law: κ ΔP
Q= − A
where η Δl
Q= volumetric flow rate
κ= permeability of the medium
η= viscosity of the fluid
A= cross sectional area

Differential form:
κ
V = − grad( P)
η
where V is the filtration velocity

177
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Units

Darcy’s law:
κ ΔP
Q= − A
η Δl

Permeability κ has dimensions of area, or m2 in SI

units. But the more convenient and traditional unit
is the Darcy.
−12 2
1Darcy ≅ 10 m
In a water saturated rock with permeability of 1
Darcy, a pressure gradient of 1 bar/cm gives a
flow velocity of 1 cm/sec.

178
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Kozeny-Carman Relation
The most common permeability 2R
model is to assume that rocks have
nice round pipes for pore fluids to
flow.
The classical solution for laminar flow through a
circular pipe gives:
πR 4 ΔP strong scale
Q= − dependence!
8η Δl
Compare this with general Darcy’s law:
κ ΔP
Q= − A
η Δl
Combining the two gives the permeability of a circular
pipe: πR 4  πR 2  R 2
κ= = 
8A  A  8
We can rewrite this permeability in terms of familiar rock
parameters, giving the Kozeny-Carman equation:
Bφ 3 Bφ 3 d 2
κ= 2 2 κ=
τ S τ
where: φ is the porosity
S is the specific pore surface area
τ is the tortuosity
d is a typical grain diameter
B is a geometric factor
179
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

10 1

Clean coarse-
grained sandstones
10 -1

Granular
limestones
Permeability (Darcy)

Shaly
sandstones
10 -3
Micritic
sandstones

-5 Silts
10

Clays
and
Tight shales
10 -7 sediments

Crystalline
rocks

10 -9
H.1

1 10
Porosity (%)
Schematic porosity/permeability relationship in rocks from Bourbié,
Coussy, Zinszner, 1987, Acoustics of Porous Media, Gulf Publishing Co.

180
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Here we compare the permeability for two synthetic

porous materials having very different grain sizes. When
normalized by grain-size squared, the data fall on top of
each other -- confirming the scale dependence.
1000

100
(x10e-6)
κ/ d2

1 0

Sintered Glass
280 µm spheres
50 µm spheres

1 H.2
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0

Porosity (%)

Demonstration of Kozeny-Carman relation in sintered glass,

from Bourbié, Coussy, and Zinszner, 1987,
Acoustics of Porous Media, Gulf Publishing Co.

181
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

A particularly systematic variation of permeability with

porosity for Fontainebleau sandstone. Note that the
slope increases at small porosity, indicating an
exponent on porosity larger than the power of 3
predicted by the Kozeny-Carman relation.
10000
n=8
(mD)

1000
Permeability (mD)

n=3
Permeability

100

10

1 κ = a φn H.3

22 4 6 8 10 30
Porosity (%)
Porosity/permeability relationship in Fontainebleau sandstone,
from Bourbié, Coussy, and Zinszner, 1987,
Acoustics of Porous Media, Gulf Publishing Co.
182
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Kozeny-Carman Relation with Percolation

As porosity decreases from cementation and

compaction, it is common to encounter a percolation
threshold where the remaining porosity is isolated or
disconnected. This porosity obviously does not
contribute to permeability. Therefore,

we suggest,
purely heuristically, replacing φ →  φ − φP  giving
3
κ = Bφ − φP d 2

Hot-pressed Calcite (Bernabe et al, 1982),

showing a good fit to the data using the Kozeny-
Carman relation modified by a percolation
porosity.
0.1
Permeability (mD)

0.01

0.001

φp ≈ 0.045
0.0001
3
κ = Bφ −.045 d 2
0.00001
.05 .10 .20
H.4

Porosity

183
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Fused Glass Beads (Winkler, 1993)

100
Permeability (mD)

10 200 micron
Permeability / D2

1 100 micron

0.1 50 micron

0.01

0.001 φp ≈ 0.035
3
κ = Bφ −.035 d 2
H.5
0.0001
.05 .10 .50
Porosity

184
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Here we show the same Fontainebleau sandstone

data as before with the Kozeny-Carman relation
modified by a percolation porosity of 2.5%. This
accounts for the increased slope at low porosities,
while retaining the exponent of 3.
10000
Permeability (mD)
Permeability (mD)

1000

100

10

φp ≈ 0.025
1
3
κ = Bφ −.025 d 2
.02 .05 .10 .30
H.6

Porosity

Fontainebleau Sandstone (Bourbié et al, 1987)

185
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Diffusion

The stress-strain law for a fluid (Hooke’s law) is

1
εαα = P
K
which can be written as

1 ∂P
∇•V =
K ∂t
combining with Darcy’s law:
−κ
V= ∇P
η
gives the classical diffusion equation:
2 −η ∂P
∇P=
κK ∂t
2 −1 ∂P
∇P=
where D is the diffusivity
D ∂t

186
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Examples of Diffusion Behavior

1-D diffusion from an initial pressure pulse
P = P0 δ x

Standard result:

P0 x2 P0 τ
P x,t = e –4Dt = e –t
4πDt 4πDt

x 2
Characteristic time scale τ=
4D

187
 Rock Physics Laboratory - Gary Mavko

Fluid Flow

Examples of Diffusion Behavior

Sinusoidal pressure disturbance

λ

Disturbance decays approximately as

2
τd = λ
4D

188