Simulating well testing on the analogy between pressure and thermal diffusion: A case study using a thermal conductivity meter

Abstract

An analogue experiment using a thermal conductivity meter has been utilized for education and training of well test analysis on the analogy between pressure diffusion in a reservoir and thermal diffusion in a solid sample. The experiment intends to provide students and trainees with an opportunity to validate their understandings after learning the fundamental theory of well testing based on subsurface fluid flow. Several plots of temperature changes generated experimentally exhibit typical curves consistent with pressure changes observed in real well tests successfully. The effects of skin and wellbore storage have been simulated successfully, which can be applied to matching with theoretical type curves.