Measurement and simulation of colloidal flow formation damage in sandstone

A study of particulate formation damage on six sandstone samples is presented. The characteristic parameters of each undamaged sample were measured, including porosity, permeability, formation factor, tortuosity and mercury intrusion/extrusion data. The diffusion coefficients for a mixture of light alkanes within one of the samples was also measured. Each sandstone sample was flooded with a colloidal calcium carbonate suspension to mimic particulate formation damage within a reservoir, and its characteristic parameters remeasured. A three-dimensional pore network model has been used to simulate the sandstone void space both before and after colloid flooding. The model, called Pore-Cor, simulates a wide range of properties using the same void space geometry, and reveals novel information about the modes of formation damage experienced by each sample.