A 3D FRACTAL MODEL COUPLED WITH TRANSPORT AND ACTION MECHANISMS TO PREDICT THE APPARENT PERMEABILITY OF SHALE MATRIX

Siyuan Wang, Peng Hou, Xin Liang, Shanjie Su and Quansheng Liu
Additional contact information
Siyuan Wang: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China
Peng Hou: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China
Xin Liang: ��School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710048, P. R. China
Shanjie Su: ��School of Civil Engineering, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, Province 221018, P. R. China
Quansheng Liu: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China

FRACTALS (fractals), 2024, vol. 32, issue 02, 1-20

Abstract: The permeability of shale controls gas transport in shale gas reservoirs. The shale has a complex pore structure at the nanoscale and its permeability is affected by multiple transport and action mechanisms. In this study, a 3D fractal model for predicting the apparent gas permeability of shale matrix is presented, accounting for the effects of the transport mechanisms (bulk gas transport and adsorption gas diffusion) and action mechanisms (gas adsorption, real gas properties, water film, stress dependence, and total organic carbon (TOC) content). The proposed model is validated with the published experimental data. A series of sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the influence of fractal characteristics and action mechanisms on the apparent permeability caused by each transport mechanism. The results show that the real gas properties, water film, and stress dependence cause different effects on the total apparent permeability of shale under different fractal characteristics. The maximum pore diameter is inversely proportional to the effects of these action mechanisms, and the porosity is positively proportional to the effects of real gas properties and water film but inversely proportional to the effects of stress dependence. An increase in TOC content can cause an improvement in the total apparent permeability. Furthermore, the effects of action mechanisms on the apparent permeability caused by different transport mechanisms are differently affected by the fractal characteristics. Changes in fractal characteristics mainly affect the apparent permeability caused by slip flow in the real gas effect, slip flow and Knudsen diffusion in the water film effect, and all transport mechanisms in the stress dependence effect.

Keywords: Shale gas; 3D fractal model; apparent permeability; transport mechanisms; action mechanisms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218348X24500397
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:fracta:v:32:y:2024:i:02:n:s0218348x24500397

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X24500397

Access Statistics for this article

FRACTALS (fractals) is currently edited by Tara Taylor

More articles in FRACTALS (fractals) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().