Flow in perforated region including non-linear effects

Fluid flow behavior in the perforated zone has a great impact on producing well deliverability thus considerable effort has been directed towards this subject by many investigators. This study concentrates on the behavior of steady-state flow of a compressible fluid in a perforated completion including non-Darcy flow. A finite-element based simulator was developed and employed to conduct a comprehensive sensitivity study of the effect of perforation parameters on a single-well flow performance. The complex nature of flow behavior in this 3-D system requires detailed information of the pressure profile, which has been acknowledged very accurately by the present model. The results demonstrated the limitations of the models currently used in well completion engineering. The in house simulator was then used to study the effect of perforation length, perforation radius, shot density, phasing angle, wellbore radius, velocity and physical properties of porous medium under study on the well flow performance. The size of the region beyond which the effect of perforation on the flow is minimal and radial flow assumption is valid was also investigated.