Calculation of Relative Permeability from

Displacement Experiments
E. F. JOHNSON I
D'
JERSEY PRODUCTION RESEARCH C(1.
JUNIOR MEMBER AlME
V. 0.NAUMANN
MEMBER AlME I

A B S T R A C T DERIVATION
A method is presented for calculating individual gas Previously the theory of Buckley and Leverett as
and oil or water and oil relative permeabilities f r o m extended by WelgeQas been used to calculate the ratio
data obtained during a gas drive or a waterflood experi- of relative permeabilities. In the derivation which fol-
ment performed o n a linear porous body. T h e method lows, this theory is further extended to permit calcula-
lrm been tested and found both rapid and reliable for tion of the individual relative permeabilities.
normal-sized core samples. The theory assumes two conditions which must be
achieved before the method is applicable. They are that
INTRODUCTION the flow velocity be high enough to achieve what has
been termed stabilized displa~ement,~ and that the flow
Individual oil and gas or oil and water relative per- velocity is constant at all cross sections of the linear
meabilities are required for a number of reservoir engi- porous body. In stabilized displacement the flowing
neering applications. Chief among these is the evalua- pressure gradient is high compared with the capillary
tion of oil displacement under conditions where gravi- pressure difference between the flowing phases. The
tational effects are significant, such as a water drive or high pressure drop insures that the portion of the core
crestal gas injection in a steeply dipping oil reservoir. in which capillary effects predominate will be com-
Numerous proposed methods of obtaining relative pressed to a negligibly small fraction of the total pore
permeability data on reservoir core samples have been space. The assumption of constant flow velocity at all
too tedious and time consuming for practical use, o r
have yielded questionable and sometimes inconsistent
results.
A A INDEPENDENTLY DETERMINE0
A method has been developed by which the indi-
0 FROM R O O D AT = I 1
vidual relative permeability curves can be calculated
$ e0
from data collected during a displacement test. The
method is based on sound theoretical considerations. >
C
Using this method, with a properly designed experi- -
m
mental procedure, relative permeability curves can be 2 6 0
obtained using core samples of normal size (i.e., 2 to I
a
W
3 in. in length and 1 to 2 in. in diameter) within a
few days after receipt of the core. W

In a recent publication D. A. Efros' describes an 4 0

6
approach to the calculation of individual relative per- W

meabilities that is based on the same theoretical con-

siderations. We believe the approach described in the
20
present paper is more adaptable to practical application
than the method implied by Efros. In addition, compari-
sons with independently determined relative permeabili-
ties are furnished to substantiate the reliability of the 0
new method. 20 40 60 80 100
WATER SATURATION-% PORE VOLUME

FIG. 1-WATER-OILRELATIVE
PERMEABILITIES
FROM WATER-
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers FLOOD SUSCEPTIBILITY
TESTDATA.DRI-FILMED
GLASSSPHERES,
office Dec. 20, 1957. Revised manuscript received Dee. 10, 1958.
'References given a t end of paper. LINEAR
CELLPERMEABILITY
= 11.5 DARCIES.

PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, A l M E
cross sect~onsrequires that the phases behave as immis- A more usable form for Eq. 8 obtained by making
cible incompressible fluids. When one of the phases is use of the fact that f', is equal to the reciprocal of the
gas. essentially incompressible behavior can be ob- cumulative volume injection, is
taincd by maintaining a pressure level high enough
that the expansion of the gas accompanying the pres-
sure drop across thc system can be neglected.
Some of the relations presented previously by Welge
are needed for the calculation of individual relative
The cited relationships provide the means for cal-
permeabilities. These are given as follows. culating individual relative permeabilities. Specifically,
for any instant in the displacement, i.e., for any value
of cumulative injection Wi, the derivative in Eq. 8a can
be evaluated from data collected during the experiment.
For a given value of W, the fraction of oil in the
effluent, f., can be evaluated separately by Eq. 3. The
k,,, which is then obtained by dividing f. by the deriva-
tive from the left-hand side of Eq. 8a, is the relative
s,,.= s ,+ W,(f.), . . . . . . . . (4) permeability to oil at the outlet face saturation, S:. The
K k r , Sp S , for the Wi under consideration is obtained by rear-
foil = - - , - . . . . . . . . (5) ranging Eq. 4:

Consider now a particular instant during a displace- The expression for the relative permeability of the
ment experiment. The pressure drop across the system displacing phase at S , is obtained by solving Eq. 2
of length L may be exprcssed as the integral for k,,.

Substituting for S p / S x from Eq. 5. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

O F T H E METHOD
I n one application of the new method water and oil
relative permeabilities were calculated from flooding
At a given instant in the displacement, according data obtained on a glass-bead packing. Three floods
to Eq. 6, the various saturations have moved distances were run o n the glass-bead system at oil-water vis-
along the length of the core given by cosity ratios of 1: 1, 5: 1 and 37: 1. Because flooding
behavior is dependent on viscosity ratio the calculated
sf'
-- - . . . . . . . . . . . . (6a) relative permeability curves cover a different range in
L f': saturation for each of the floods. The results of these
Substitution of Eq. 6a into Eq. 7a gives calculations are presented in Fig. 1. It can be seen that
the three segments of the relative permeability curves
are in close agreement. This indicates that the new cal-

A MEASURED I N RELATIVE PERMEABILITY TEST

CALCULATED FROM WATERFLOOD DATA (LONG CORE)
The symbol I, is taken from Rapoport'. H e describes CALCULATED FROM WATERFLOOD DATA (SHORT CORE)
I, in terms of the intake capacity, u / l p , as follows. MEASURED BEFORE OR AFTER WATERFLOOD

"The symbol I,, designated as relative injectivity, is a

dimensionless function of cumulative injection, describ-
ing the manner in which the intake capacity varies with
cumulative injection. From a physical viewpoint, the
relative injectivity may be defined as the ratio of the
intake capacity at any given flood stage to the intake
capacity of the system at the very initiation of the
flood (at which moment practically only oil is flowing
through the system). This latter definition permits the
determination of the relative injectivity function for a
given type of reservoir rock from the measurements of
flow rate and pressure drop taken at successive stages
of a waterflood susceptibility test."
Practical applications of the derivation just outlined
can now be obtained by treating the relationship Eq.
7b as an equation in terms of the variable, f'?. Differ-
entiating Eq. 7b with respect to and noting that
fj2,

ordinary rather than partial differentiation can be used

since 'j is the only independent variable at the moment
considered, yields
0
20 40
WATER SATURATION -
60 80
% OF PORE VOLUME
I
100

V O L . 216. 1 9 5 9
culation proccdurc is valid and can be relied upon to MEASURED IN RELATIVE PERMEARILITY T E S T
CALCULATED FROM GASFLOOD DATA (LONG CORE)
give dependable oil and water relative permeability V CALCULATED FROM GASFLOOD DATA (SHORT CORE1
curves if accurate test data are available. MEASURED BEFORE OR AFTER GASFLOOD

Evidence attesting more directly to the reliability of the

new method has been obtained by comparing relative
permeabilities calculated from data taken during displace-
ment tests with relative permeabilities measured directly
during steady-state tests. For the steady-state tests long
cores, about 12 in., were used to improve the accuracy
of the saturation determination and to minimize end ef-
fects. Displacement tests were carried out on these long
cores as well as on short. 2 to 3 in., core samples. Both
gas-oil and oil-water relative permeability curves for
several different types of porous material were obtained
by the two different methods. In all cases there is ex-
cellent agreement. In practice, the new calculative
method has proven faster and simpler than other
methods for obtaining relative permeability data. Fur-
thermore, relative permeability values can be calcu-
lated from displacement data obtained on short cores
such as are usually employed in routine core analysis
tests.
A sample of the data obtained during this investi-
gation is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Calculated and meas- TOTAL LIQUID SATURATION - % OF PORE VOLUME
ured relative permeabilities for one of the porous mate-
rials used, Weiler sandstone, are shown. The agreement
is apparent.
CONCLUSIONS
W , = cumulative injection in pore volumes
The present work may be summarized by the fol- u = average velocity of approach toward enter-
lowing conclusions. ing sand face = q / A
1. A theoretically sound mcthod has been developed v = average velocity inside pores = u + (frac-
for calculating gas-oil or water-oil relative permeabili- tional porosity)
ties from gas flood or waterflood data. x = position
2. A comprehensive test of the method has been
made, and it has been found to yield reliable results av = average
which are in agreement with direct measurements of w = pertaining to water (or other displacing
relative permeabilities obtained in steady-state flow tests. phase)
3. The method is far less time consuming than other o = pertaining to oil (displaced phase)
reliable methods for obtaining relative permeability s = start of displacement
data. 2 = pertaining to outlet face of porous body
4. Reliable relative permeability values can be cal-
culated from data obtained in displacement tests on A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
short core samples such as are usually available for
routine analysis. The assistance of H. J. Welge, L. A. Rapoport and
5. Because of conclusions just cited, the method J. R. Kyte in the preparation of this paper is gratefully
developed in this article offers a fast, yet reliable, means acknowledged. C. W. Carpenter was kind enough to
for obtaining individual relative permeabilities from furnish the experimental data from which the relative
displacement data obtained on normal-sized reservoir permeabilities in Fig. 1 were calculated. The authors
core samples. wish to thank the Jersey Production Research Co. for
permission to publish this paper.
NOMENCLATURE*
REFERENCES
f = fraction of displacing phase inflowing stream
f, = fraction of displaced phase in flowing stream 1. Efros, D. A.: "Determination of Relative Permeability and
f' = df/dS Distribution Factors in the Displacement of Petroleum by
Water". Dokladr Akad. Nauk (Nov. 1 1 , 1956) 110. No. 5.
I, = u/Ap + (u/Ap at start of injection) 746.
K = total permeability (permeability to oil at 2. Welge, H. J.: "Simplified Method for Computing Oil Re-
initial conditions) covery by Gas or Water Drive", Trans. AIME (1952) 195,
k , = relative permeability, fraction of K 91.
3. Rapoport, L. A. and Leas, W. J.: "Properties of Linear
Waterfloods", Trans. AIME ( 1953) 198, 139.
*See A I M E Symbols in Trans. A I M E (1956) 207. 363, for
other symbol definitions. 4. Rapoport, L. A.: private communication. *M

PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME