Discrete-Fracture Modeling of Complex Hydraulic-Fracture Geometries in Reservoir Simulators

Xu, Yifei; Filho, José Sérgio de Araújo Cavalcante; Yu, Wei; Sepehrnoori, Kamy

doi:10.2118/183647-pa

Cited by 220 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…As the aforementioned discussion, EDFM approach is easier for handling the complex fracture networks and its computational speed is several times faster than the LGR approach when modeling complex fracture geometries26.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to consider the capillary pressure effect, the raw data of Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP) test and the nanopore size distribution were used for the Middle Bakken formation23242627, and the nanopore sizes were divided into five different regions: less than 10 nm, 10–20 nm, 20–30 nm, 30–50 nm, and bulk (pore sizes larger than 50 nm). It should be mentioned that different rocks need different patterns and the division mainly depends on the actual pore size distribution of the tight rock.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…. In addition, the EDFM approach can be applied in traditional reservoir simulators in a non-intrusive manner26.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Comprehensive Numerical Model for Simulating Fluid Transport in Nanopores

Zhang

Sepehrnoori

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Since a large amount of nanopores exist in tight oil reservoirs, fluid transport in nanopores is complex due to large capillary pressure. Recent studies only focus on the effect of nanopore confinement on single-well performance with simple planar fractures in tight oil reservoirs. Its impacts on multi-well performance with complex fracture geometries have not been reported. In this study, a numerical model was developed to investigate the effect of confined phase behavior on cumulative oil and gas production of four horizontal wells with different fracture geometries. Its pore sizes were divided into five regions based on nanopore size distribution. Then, fluid properties were evaluated under different levels of capillary pressure using Peng-Robinson equation of state. Afterwards, an efficient approach of Embedded Discrete Fracture Model (EDFM) was applied to explicitly model hydraulic and natural fractures in the reservoirs. Finally, three fracture geometries, i.e. non-planar hydraulic fractures, non-planar hydraulic fractures with one set natural fractures, and non-planar hydraulic fractures with two sets natural fractures, are evaluated. The multi-well performance with confined phase behavior is analyzed with permeabilities of 0.01 md and 0.1 md. This work improves the analysis of capillarity effect on multi-well performance with complex fracture geometries in tight oil reservoirs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Comprehensive Numerical Model for Simulating Fluid Transport in Nanopores

Zhang

Sepehrnoori

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…However, the use of unstructured grids leads to high computational cost and they are still limited in real field studies. As a solution, the EDFM was developed [3,5,41,42] to honor the accuracy of DFMs while keeping the efficiency offered by structured gridding. In this study, a numerical method with EDFM implemented by Shakiba and Sepehrnoori [28] is used to compute the pressure distributions.…”

Section: Edfm Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracture Detection and Numerical Modeling for Fractured Reservoirs

Zuo

Tan

et al. 2019

Energies

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The subsurface fractures could impact the fluid mechanisms dramatically, which makes the modeling of the hydraulic and natural fractures an essential step for fractured reservoirs simulations. However, because of the complexities of fracture patterns and distributions, it is difficult to detect and quantify the fracture networks. In this study, line detection techniques are designed and applied to quantify the fracture segments from fracture figures. Using this fracture detection algorithm, the fracture segments could be located by detecting the endpoints and the intersections of fractures, thus that the fracture patterns could be accurately captured and characterized. The proposed method is applied to two previous well-known field cases and the pressure distribution results are consistent with the micro-seismic data profiles. These two field cases are simulated and computed by using a semianalytical model and Embedded Discrete Fracture Model (EDFM) respectively. The third case is constructed by the fracture outcrop figure and simulated by a numerical simulator with EDFM implemented. The simulation results are accurate and clearly illustrate the important role fractures play in unconventional reservoirs. The technology proposed in this study could be used to quantify the fracture input data for reservoir simulations and be easily expanded for fracture detection and characterization problems in other fields.

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“…In multistage fracturing technology, the stress concentration have an impact on the fracture initiation and propagation of the subsequent stage under closer cluster space. Based on the displacement-discontinuity method, a 2D model [17] was established to study the stress distribution around transverse fractures and the geometries of those fractures. This paper based on the fracture mechanics, and combined with conventional hydraulic fracture theory, takes the fracture net pressure as the judgement of fracture propagation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation Research and Application of Complex Fracture Network for SRV

Sun¹,

Liu²,

Zheng³

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Modeling, Analysis, Simulation Technologies and Applications (MASTA 2019)

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Stimulated Reservoir Volume (SRV) is one of new emerging hydraulic fracturing techniques to develop shale gas, tight sandstone and other unconventional reservoirs. The favorable geological conditions and reasonable fracturing design are critical factors to form complex fracture network that is different from conventional bi-wing fracture. In the reservoir, conductivity and drainage space can be enhanced by the fracture network. At present, numerical simulation of complex fractures is still based on the pseudo-3D model and depend on huge amount of calculation to obtain the fracture network. Therefore, this method has distinct differences in actual propagation and need to be computed intensively. Applying the theory of mechanics of materials and fracture mechanics, the equations of expansion and propagation for natural fracture are derived and the equation of stress shadow is adopted to consider the additional normal stress induced by adjacent fractures. Based on the propagation pressure, the length of branching fracture can be obtained by establishing a novel fracture network model. The model can be solved explicitly through the net pressure. This method can reduce the iterations effectively when many natural fracture must be accounted for the realization of numerical calculation. In order to verify the accuracy of the results, the parameters applied in the treatment are adopted as input for simulation, and the data of microseismic mapping are also used for matching the fracture network.

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Discrete-Fracture Modeling of Complex Hydraulic-Fracture Geometries in Reservoir Simulators

Cited by 220 publications

References 39 publications

A Comprehensive Numerical Model for Simulating Fluid Transport in Nanopores

A Comprehensive Numerical Model for Simulating Fluid Transport in Nanopores

Fracture Detection and Numerical Modeling for Fractured Reservoirs

Simulation Research and Application of Complex Fracture Network for SRV

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