Miscellaneous Subsurface Methods 



707 



sion of fluids. Furthermore, whenever the amount of wetting fluid is too 

 small to allow interconnection of the wetting phase from pore to pore, the 

 wetting phase assumes a position and distribution within the pore system 

 known as pendular because of the fact that the wetting fluid is held by 

 surface forces at the solid-liquid interface in the form of pendular rings 



1.0 



0.9 



SAMPLE 3 



K = 540.0 md. 



08 



0.7 



t 0.6 



0.5 



0.4 



0.3 



0.2 



0.1 



0.0 



WATER SATURATION - PERCENT 



Figure 383. Variation of relative permeability to gas of San Andres dolomite 

 with connate-water saturation, Goldsmith field, Texas. 



about the points of inter-grain contact figure 376a. If the amount of 

 wetting fluid within the pore system is increased sufficiently, the pendular 

 rings of fluid in adjacent pores coalesce and unite, resulting in the forma- 

 tion of a continuum of the wetting-fluid phase throughout the pore system 

 in what is designated as the funicular arrangement or distribution (fig. 

 376). Permeability of a rock to a particular fluid phase and maintenance 

 of the steady state of flow of that fluid depend on and require the funicular 

 distribution of the fluid to obtain in the rock. Many of the broad features 



