Abstract
The three-phase relative permeability relations define the hydrodynamics of fluid flow in porous medium. These relations are necessary for simulation of various phenomena occurring in the reservoir during various production and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes; such as chemical flooding, steam flooding, enhanced gas drives, etc.
Despite the availability of a modest number of relative permeability measurements reported in literature since 1941, there is no universally accepted conclusion reached on the shape of the isoperms. Given this scarcity of consistent experimental data, it is difficult to recommend any of the developed predictive models, e.g. empirical, mechanistic, or pore-level, for the estimation of isoperms of each phase under reservoir conditions. This paper presents a review of a wide rage of experimental results reported on three-phase relative permeability and highlights their salient features and distinctive findings. It also provides indepth evaluation of technical achievements in this field. The present study is a useful reference for engineers and scientists interested in modeling of multi-phase flow in porous media, and provides guidelines on the selection of predictive models for generation of three-phase relative permeability isoperms.
