A Comparative Study of Geometrical Upscaling Methods for Inclusion of Fault Zone Structure into Upscaled Reservoir Simulation Models

Islam, Md. Saiful; Manzocchi, Tom; Walsh, John J.; Stern, David

doi:10.1007/s11053-021-09832-6

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“…Two types of approach have been proposed to represent three-dimensional fault zone structure in full-field flow simulation modeling: representation of the fault zone geometries using local grid refinements 18 or representation by upscaling 11 . This study considers a type of upscaling called “geometrical upscaling”, which is defined as the process of capturing the transmissibilities of all the tortuous flow paths within, across and along the components of the fault zone, and representing them in the simulation model as neighbor and non-neighbor connections 10 , 11 , 19 , 20 .…”

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confidence: 99%

A novel flow-based geometrical upscaling method for representing fault zones with two-phase fault rock properties into a dynamic reservoir model

Islam

Manzocchi

2021

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Faults are generally represented in conventional upscaled models as 2D planar surfaces with transmissibility multipliers used to represent single-phase fault properties. However, faults are structurally complex 3D zones in which both single-phase and two-phase fault rock properties can be significant. Ignoring this structural and petrophysical complexity within faults may impart considerable inaccuracy on the predictive performance of upscaled models. This study has developed a two-phase flow-based geometrical upscaling method capable of representing simultaneously the complex geometry and saturation-dependent two-phase flow properties of realistic fault zones. In this approach, high-resolution sector models are built of small portions of the fault zones and assigned appropriate single-phase and two-phase fault rock properties. Steady state two-phase flow simulations at different fractional flows of oil and water are used to determine the saturation dependent upscaled pseudo relative permeability functions which are incorporated into upscaled models. The method is applied to an example model containing two 3D fault zone components and tested by comparing the flow results of upscaled model with those of a high-resolution truth model. Results show that two-phase flow-based geometrical upscaling is a promising method for representing the effects of two-phase fault rock properties and complex 3D fault zone structure simultaneously.

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