Impact of Fracture Topology on the Fluid Flow Behavior of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

Leidy Laura Alvarez, Leonardo José do Nascimento Guimarães, Igor Fernandes Gomes, Leila Beserra, Leonardo Cabral Pereira, Tiago Siqueira de Miranda, Bruno Maciel and José Antônio Barbosa
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Leidy Laura Alvarez: Civil Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
Leonardo José do Nascimento Guimarães: Civil Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
Igor Fernandes Gomes: Civil Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
Leila Beserra: Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
Leonardo Cabral Pereira: Petrobras, Rio de Janeiro 21941-915, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tiago Siqueira de Miranda: Department of Geology, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
Bruno Maciel: Civil Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil
José Antônio Barbosa: GEOQUANTT Lab—DGEO, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50740-530, PE, Brazil

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-25

Abstract: Fluid flow modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs remains a challenge because of the complex nature of fracture systems controlled by various chemical and physical phenomena. A discrete fracture network (DFN) model represents an approach to capturing the relationship of fractures in a fracture system. Topology represents the connectivity aspect of the fracture planes, which have a fundamental role in flow simulation in geomaterials involving fractures and the rock matrix. Therefore, one of the most-used methods to treat fractured reservoirs is the double porosity-double permeability model. This approach requires the shape factor calculation, a key parameter used to determine the effects of coupled fracture-matrix fluid flow on the mass transfer between different domains. This paper presents a numerical investigation that aimed to evaluate the impact of fracture topology on the shape factor and equivalent permeability through hydraulic connectivity ( f ). This study was based on numerical simulations of flow performed in discrete fracture network (DFN) models embedded in finite element meshes (FEM). Modeled cases represent four hypothetical examples of fractured media and three real scenarios extracted from a Brazilian pre-salt carbonate reservoir model. We have compared the results of the numerical simulations with data obtained using Oda’s analytical model and Oda’s correction approach, considering the hydraulic connectivity f . The simulations showed that the equivalent permeability and the shape factor are strongly influenced by the hydraulic connectivity ( f ) in synthetic scenarios for X and Y-node topological patterns, which showed the higher value for f (0.81) and more expressive values for upscaled permeability (kx-node = 0.1151 and ky-node = 0.1153) and shape factor (25.6 and 14.5), respectively. We have shown that the analytical methods are not efficient for estimating the equivalent permeability of the fractured medium, including when these methods were corrected using topological aspects.

Keywords: carbonate reservoir; fracture network topology; shape factor; permeability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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