An improved apparent permeability model considering full pore pressure range, variable intrinsic permeability and slippage coefficient

Abstract

Although the slippage effect has been extensively studied, most of the previous studies focused on the impact of the slippage effect on apparent permeability within a low pore pressure range, resulting in the inability of matching the evolution of permeability in the remaining pressure range. In this paper, a new apparent permeability model that reveals the evolution of permeability under the combined action of effective stress and slippage in the full pore pressure range was proposed. In this model, both intrinsic permeability and slippage coefficient are stress dependent. Three experimental tests with pore pressure lower than 2 MPa and a test with pore pressure at about 10 MPa using cores from the same origin under constant confining stress and constant effective stress are conducted. By comparing experimental data and another apparent permeability model, we proved the fidelity of our newly developed model. Furthermore, the contribution factor of the slippage effect Rslip is used to determine the low pore pressure limit with significant slippage effect. Our results show that both narrow initial pore size and high effective stress increase the critical pore pressure. Finally, the evolutions of the slippage coefficient and the intrinsic permeability under different boundary conditions were analyzed.

Keywords

• Slippage effect
• Apparent permeability
• Contribution factor
• Critical pore pressure
• Intrinsic permeability