RESEARCH PROGRAM ON FRACTURED PETROLEUM RESERVOIRS
Numerical simulation of water injection in discrete fractured media with capillary pressure is a challenge. Dual-porosity models in view of their strength and simplicity can be mainly used for sugar-cube representation of fractured media. In such a representation, the transfer function between the fracture and the matrix block can be readily calculated for water-wet media. For a mixed-wet system, the evaluation of the transfer function becomes complicated due to the effect of gravity. In this work, they use a discrete-fracture model in which the fractures are discretized as one dimensional entities to account for fracture thickness by an integral form of the flow equations. This simple step greatly improves the numerical solution. Then the discrete-fracture model is implemented using a Galerkin finite element method. The robustness and the accuracy of the approach are shown through several examples. First they consider a single fracture in a rock matrix and compare the results of the discrete-fracture model with a single-porosity model. Then, they use the discrete-fracture model in more complex configurations. Numerical simulations are carried out in water-wet media as well as in mixed-wet media to study the effect of matrix and fracture capillary pressures.
- Research Organization:
- Reservoir Engineering Research Institute (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG26-99BC15177
- OSTI ID:
- 834357
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 12 Apr 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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