Scaling one- and multi-dimensional co-current spontaneous imbibition processes in fractured reservoirs

Spontaneous Imbibition (SI) is in particular a very important mechanism for oil and gas recovery from matrix blocks in naturally fractured reservoirs. An analytical solution to the one-dimensional co-current spontaneous imbibition (COCSI) problem was proposed by Schmid et al. (2011). On the basis of this analytical solution, a set of scaling equations as well as a simplified one were developed for the COCSI process (Mirzaei-Paiaman and Masihi, 2014). The objective of this study was to validate these scaling equations using 12 one-dimensional COCSI experiments. To accommodate for multi-dimensionality of the COCSI process, a shape factor was proposed and incorporated into the one-dimensional scaling equations to make them applicable for any matrix size, shape and boundary conditions. The resulted scaling equations were validated through the use of data associated with 17 multi-dimensional water-oil COCSI experiments. The necessity of accounting for matrix anisotropy in the proposed scaling equations was also investigated.