Numerical Investigation of the Impacts of Wall Fluid Entry on Fluid Flow Characteristics and Pressure Drop along a Wellbore

Single-point or limited-point wall fluid entry in a wellbore has been observed in different oil and gas wells all over the world through downhole video logging. The wall fluid entry is expected to affect both the fluid flow characteristics in a wellbore and the pressure drop along the wellbore. In order to investigate the impacts of the single-point wall fluid entry, a numerical simulation model has been set up and a series of numerical simulations have been conducted by using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package. Flow velocity profiles, streaklines, pressure distribution along the wellbore, and so on have been thoroughly investigated. The simulation results clearly demonstrate the influence of the wall fluid entry on the fluid flow as well as the pressure drop along the wellbore. The impacts on the pressure drop along the wellbore have further been quantified.