Rules for Flight Paths and Time of Flight for Flows in Porous Media with Heterogeneous Permeability and Porosity

Figure 12

Two central clay or shale walls obstruct flow, except for sand filled fractures that leave a high permeability conduit for the flood advance across the two central low permeability walls. Low permeability walls also occur above and below the well arrays. (a) There are two gaps on the second clay wall from the top. (b) There is only one gap on the second clay wall from the top. (c) The streamlines (red curves) and flood flight times (rainbow colors for TOF scaled in unit of days) for case (a), where sand permeability is 100 mD and clay is 100 nD; porosity everywhere equals 20%. (d) The streamlines and flood flight times for case (b). (e) Pressure map for case (a) (rainbow colors scaled for pressure in psi units). (f) Pressure map for case (b). Flow is in steady state, due to which pressures remain steady.

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(b)

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