The tendency of the rocks solid material to imbibe one fluid (known as "wetting phase") in the presence of another fluid (known as "non-wetting phase").
The usual classification is:
| Typical values of RPM properties | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| swc | s*w @ krwo = krow | krwo @ max sw = 1- sor | ||
| Oil wet | swc < 0.1 – 0.15 | s*w < 0.5 | krwo ~ 0.5 | Oil is wetting phase and slow while water is agile |
| Water wet | swc > 0.2 – 0.25 | s*w > 0.5 | krwo < 0.3 | Water is wetting phase and slow while oil is agile |
| Mixed wettability | 0.1 < swc < 0.25 | s*w ~ 0.5 | 0.3 < krwo < 0.5 | Oil and water have similar agility |
See also
Physics / Fluid Dynamics / Percolation
Petroleum Industry / Upstream / Subsurface E&P Disciplines / Petrophysics
[ Permeability ] [Relative permeability ]
Reference
[1] Fundamentals of Wettability - Oilfield Review - 2007