Linking Sandpack Tests and CFD: How Vibration-Induced Permeability Heterogeneity Shapes Waterflood Sweep and Oil Recovery

Vibration-assisted water flooding (VA-WF) can improve sweep efficiency. However, unclear macro-scale mechanisms limit its wider adoption in heavy oil reservoirs. This study combines previous sandpack experiments with two-dimensional Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) simulations to show how vibrations reshape permeability fields and, in turn, pressure and production behaviour. Heavy oil sandpacks were water-flooded under conditions of no vibration and 2 Hz and 5 Hz axial excitation. Measured injection pressure histories and oil production were used to calibrate a VOF model in which absolute permeability follows a log-normal distribution with directional anisotropy. Only when axial and radial permeabilities were assigned a negative local correlation did the model reproduce key observations: secondary pressure spikes, irregular viscous-fingering morphologies, delayed production drops, and variability in cumulative recovery. Parameter sweeps quantify the sensitivity of VA-WF performance to the variance and correlation of the permeability field, and multiple runs estimate the variability in outcomes introduced by stochastic heterogeneity. This study proposes a transferable workflow—comprising sample testing, parameter inference, and probabilistic simulation—to screen excitation conditions and forecast VA-WF performance prior to field implementation, enabling operators to optimize vibration frequency based on reservoir-specific permeability characteristics and to anticipate production variability under uncertainty. These results highlight the dominant factors affecting swept volume and oil recovery, supporting data-driven decision making in VA-WF projects.