Bowland Shale well placement strategy-Part 2:Fracture simulations using a 3D geomechanical model and implications for stratigraphic and spatial horizontal well locations

Hydraulic fracture modelling is a key component of a shale reservoir well placement strategy as it provides an indication of the typical lengths and heights of stimulated fractures and of the changes to the stress environment in which these are propagating.However,spatial and stratigraphic variations in the stress and geomechanical properties of shales make accurate modelling a challenging task.For the UK Bowland Shale,stacked horizontal wells targeting multiple stratigraphic intervals could be used to avoid large offset faults in a geologically complex area.However,it is not known how these intervals may respond to hydraulic fracturing and predicting the height and length of hydraulic fractures is necessary in order to assess the likelihood of vertical fracture interference across landing zones or propagation towards major faults.In the case of the former,intervals of high effective stress may be key to containing fractures within their desired target.Using a planar hydraulic fracture simulator,and a 3D geomechanical model incorporating dipping stratigraphy,the issue of predicting hydraulic fracture geometry in the Bowland Shale was assessed through a series of modelling exercises using well Preese Hall-1 and horizontal pseudo-wells.When pre-defined landing zones were targeted,narrow and long transverse fractures around 1 km from the well were simulated.When the simulation design mimicked perforation clusters placed at 12 m intervals along horizontal pseudo-wells,the effects of stress shadowing were acute and resulted in irregular fracture geometries.Furthermore,high effective stress intervals performed efficiently as barriers to vertical hydraulic fracture propagation,reinforcing the feasibility of using stacked production for the Bowland Shale.The modelling results were then used to discuss the possible placement of horizontal wells in a mapped,100 km2 region around well Preese Hall-1,where up to 13 sites could be positioned,with a horizontal well length of around 1.5 km.Finally,by drawing on a wellestablished analogue for the Bowland Shale,it was estimated that up to 195 Bcf of gas could be produced from the 13 locations in the area if three stratigraphic intervals are produced from one location.

Numerical simulation of three-dimensional fracturing fracture propagation in radial wells

A fracture propagation model of radial well fracturing is established based on the finite element-meshless method.The model considers the coupling effect of fracturing fluid flow and rock matrix deformation.The fracture geometries of radial well fracturing are simulated,the induction effect of radial well on the fracture is quantitatively characterized,and the influences of azimuth,horizontal principle stress difference,and reservoir matrix permeability on the fracture geometries are revealed.The radial wells can induce the fractures to extend parallel to their axes when two radial wells in the same layer are fractured.When the radial wells are symmetrically distributed along the direction of the minimum horizontal principle stress with the azimuth greater than 15,the extrusion effect reduces the fracture length of radial wells.When the radial wells are symmetrically distributed along the direction of the maximum horizontal principal stress,the extrusion increases the fracture length of the radial wells.The fracture geometries are controlled by the rectification of radial borehole,the extrusion between radial wells in the same layer,and the deflection of the maximum horizontal principal stress.When the radial wells are distributed along the minimum horizontal principal stress symmetrically,the fracture length induced by the radial well decreases with the increase of azimuth;in contrast,when the radial wells are distributed along the maximum horizontal principal stress symmetrically,the fracture length induced by the radial well first decreases and then increases with the increase of azimuth.The fracture length induced by the radial well decreases with the increase of horizontal principal stress difference.The increase of rock matrix permeability and pore pressure of the matrix around radial wells makes the inducing effect of the radial well on fractures increase.

Quasimolecular Dynamic Simulation for Bending Fracture of Laminar Composite Materials

Recently, quasimolecular dynamics has been successfully used to simulate the deformation characteristics of actual size solid materials. In quasimolecular dynamics, which is an attempt to bridge the gap between atomistic and continuum simulations, molecules are aggregated into large units, called quasimolecules, to evaluate large scale material behavior. In this paper, a 2-dimensional numerical simulation using quasimolecular dynamics was performed to investigate laminar composite material fractures and crack propagation behavior in the uniform bending of laminar composite materials. It was verified that under bending deformation laminar composite materials deform quite differently from homogeneous

An efficient 3D cell-based discrete fracture-matrix flow model for digitally captured fracture networks

Complex hydraulic fracture networks are critical for enhancing permeability in unconventional reservoirs and mining indus-tries.However,accurately simulating the fluid flow in realistic fracture networks(compared to the statistical fracture net-works)is still challenging due to the fracture complexity and computational burden.This work proposes a simple yet efficient numerical framework for the flow simulation in fractured porous media obtained by 3D high-resolution images,aiming at both computational accuracy and efficiency.The fractured rock with complex fracture geometries is numerically constructed with a cell-based discrete fracture-matrix model(DFM)having implicit fracture apertures.The flow in the complex fractured porous media(including matrix flow,fracture flow,as well as exchange flow)is simulated with a pipe-based cell-centered finite volume method.The performance of this model is validated against analytical/numerical solutions.Then a lab-scale true triaxial hydraulically fractured shale sample is reconstructed,and the fluid flow in this realistic fracture network is simu-lated.Results suggest that the proposed method achieves a good balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.The complex fracture networks control the fluid flow process,and the opened natural fractures behave as primary fuid pathways.Heterogeneous and anisotropic features of fluid flow are well captured with the present model.

Application of computer aided 3D simulation technique for complicated foot and ankle fractures

Objective To investigate the effect of computer aided 3D simulation technique for treating complicated foot and ankle fractures precisely.Methods From November 2007 to August 2009,255 patients with complicated foot and ankle fractures

A new laboratory method for evaluating formation damage in fractured carbonate reservoirs

Natural carbonate core samples with artificial fractures are often used to evaluate the damage of fractured carbonate formations in the laboratory. It is shown that the most frequent error for evaluation results directly from the random width characterized by the artificial fractures. To solve this problem, a series of simulated fractured core samples made of stainless steel with a given width of fracture were prepared. The relative error for the width of artificial fracture decreased to 1%. The width of natural and artificial fractures in carbonate reservoirs can be estimated by image log data. A series of tests for formation damage were conducted by using the stainless steel simulated core samples flushed with different drilling fluids, such as the sulfonate/polymer drill-in fluid and the solids-flee drill-in fluid with or without ideal packing bridging materials. Based on the experimental results using this kind of simulated cores, a novel approach to the damage control of fractured carbonate reservoirs was presented. The effective temporary plugging ring on the end face of the simulated core sample can be observed clearly. The experimental results also show that the stainless steel simulated cores made it possible to visualize the solids and filtrate invasion.

Numerical simulation of hydraulic fracturing and associated microseismicity using finite-discrete element method

Hydraulic fracturing （HF） technique has been extensively used for the exploitation of unconventional oiland gas reservoirs. HF enhances the connectivity of less permeable oil and gas-bearing rock formationsby fluid injection, which creates an interconnected fracture network and increases the hydrocarbonproduction. Meanwhile, microseismic （MS） monitoring is one of the most effective approaches to evaluatesuch stimulation process. In this paper, the combined finite-discrete element method （FDEM） isadopted to numerically simulate HF and associated MS. Several post-processing tools, includingfrequency-magnitude distribution （b-value）, fractal dimension （D-value）, and seismic events clustering,are utilized to interpret numerical results. A non-parametric clustering algorithm designed specificallyfor FDEM is used to reduce the mesh dependency and extract more realistic seismic information.Simulation results indicated that at the local scale, the HF process tends to propagate following the rockmass discontinuities; while at the reservoir scale, it tends to develop in the direction parallel to themaximum in-situ stress. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of gas transport mechanisms on the productivity of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs

In order to investigate the influence on shale gas well productivity caused by gas transport in nanometer- size pores, a mathematical model of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs is built, which considers the influence of viscous flow, Knudsen diffusion, surface diffusion, and adsorption layer thickness. A dis- crete-fracture model is used to simplify the fracture mod- cling, and a finite element method is applied to solve the model. The numerical simulation results indicate that with a decrease in the intrinsic matrix permeability, Knudsen diffusion and surface diffusion contributions to production become large and cannot be ignored. The existence of an adsorption layer on the nanopore surfaces reduces the effective pore radius and the effective porosity, resulting in low production from fractured horizontal wells. With a decrease in the pore radius, considering the adsorption layer, the production reduction rate increases. When the pore radius is less than 10 nm, because of the combined impacts of Knudsen diffusion, surface diffusion, and adsorption layers, the production of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells increases with a decrease in the pore pressure. When the pore pressure is lower than 30 MPa, the rate of production increase becomes larger with a decrease in pore pressure.

Microscale crack propagation in shale samples using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy and three-dimensional numerical modeling

Reliable prediction of the shale fracturing process is a challenging problem in exploiting deep shale oil and gas resources.Complex fracture networks need to be artificially created to employ deep shale oil and gas reserves.Randomly distributed minerals and heterogeneities in shales significantly affect mechanical properties and fracturing behaviors in oil and gas exploitation.Describing the actual microstructure and associated heterogeneities in shales constitutes a significant challenge.The RFPA3D(rock failure process analysis parallel computing program)-based modeling approach is a promising numerical technique due to its unique capability to simulate the fracturing behavior of rocks.To improve traditional numerical technology and study crack propagation in shale on the microscopic scale,a combination of high-precision internal structure detection technology with the RFPA^(3D) numerical simulation method was developed to construct a real mineral structure-based modeling method.First,an improved digital image processing technique was developed to incorporate actual shale microstructures(focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy was used to capture shale microstructure images that reflect the distri-butions of different minerals)into the numerical model.Second,the effect of mineral inhomogeneity was considered by integrating the mineral statistical model obtained from the mineral nanoindentation experiments into the numerical model.By simulating a shale numerical model in which pyrite particles are wrapped by organic matter,the effects of shale microstructure and applied stress state on microcrack behavior and mechanical properties were investigated and analyzed.In this study,the effect of pyrite particles on fracture propagation was systematically analyzed and summarized for the first time.The results indicate that the distribution of minerals and initial defects dominated the fracture evolution and the failure mode.Cracks are generally initiated and propagated along the boundaries of hard mineral particles such as pyrite or in soft minerals such as organic matter.Locations with collections of hard minerals are more likely to produce complex fractures.This study provides a valuable method for un-derstanding the microfracture behavior of shales.

A numerical investigation of hydraulic fracturing on coal seam permeability based on PFC‑COMSOL coupling method

Hydraulic fracturing and permeability enhancement are effective methods to improve low-permeability coal seams.However,few studies focused on methods to increase permeability,and there are no suitable prediction methods for engineering applications.In this work,PFC2D software was used to simulate coal seam hydraulic fracturing.The results were used in a coupled mathematical model of the interaction between coal seam deformation and gas flow.The results show that the displacement and velocity of particles increase in the direction of minimum principal stress,and the cracks propagate in the direction of maximum principal stress.The gas pressure drop rate and permeability increase rate of the fracture model are higher than that of the non-fracture model.Both parameters decrease rapidly with an increase in the drainage time and approach 0.The longer the hydraulic fracturing time,the more complex the fracture network is,and the faster the gas pressure drops.However,the impact of fracturing on the gas drainage effect declines over time.As the fracturing time increases,the difference between the horizontal and vertical permeability increases.However,this difference decreases as the gas drainage time increases.The higher the initial void pressure,the faster the gas pressure drops,and the greater the permeability increase is.However,the influence of the initial void pressure on the permeability declines over time.The research results provide guidance for predicting the anti-reflection effect of hydraulic fracturing in underground coal mines.

A tight sandstone multi-physical hydraulic fractures simulator study and its field application

During the past years,the recovery of unconventional gas formation has attracted lots of attention and achieved huge success.To produce gas from the low-permeability unconventional formations,hydraulic fracturing technology is essential and critical.In this paper,we present the development of a three-dimensional thermalhydraulic-mechanical numerical simulator for the simulation of hydraulic fracturing operations in tight sandstone reservoirs.Our simulator is based on integrated finite difference(IFD)method.In this method,the simulation domain is subdivided into sub domains and the governing equations are integrated over a sub domain with flux terms expressed as an integral over the sub domain boundary using the divergence theorem.Our simulator conducts coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical simulation of the initiation and extension of hydraulic fractures.It also calculates the mass/heat transport of injected hydraulic fluids as well as proppants.Our simulator is able to handle anisotropic formations with multiple layers.Our simulator has been validated by comparing with an analytical solution as well as Ribeiro and Sharma model.Our model can simulate fracture spacing effect on fracture profile when combining IFD with Discontinuous Displacement Method(DDM).

Stable and realistic crack pattern generation using a cracking node method

This paper presents a method for simulating surface crack patterns appearing in ceramic glaze, glass, wood and mud. It uses a physically and heuristically combined method to model this type of crack pattern. A stress field is defined heuristically over the triangle mesh of an object. Then, a first-order quasi-static cracking node method （CNM） is used to model deformation. A novel combined stress and energy combined crack criterion is employed to address crack initiation and propagation separately according to physics. Meanwhile, a highest-stress-first rule is applied in crack initiation, and a breadth-first rule is applied in crack propagation. Finally, a local stress relaxation step is employed to evolve the stress field and avoid shattering artifacts. Other related issues are also discussed, such as the elimination of quadra- ture sub-cells, the prevention of parallel cracks and spurious crack procession. Using this method, a variety of crack patterns observed in the real world can be reproduced by changing a set of parameters. Consequently, our method is robust because the computational mesh is independent of dynamic cracks and has no sliver elements. We evaluate the realism of our results by comparing them with photographs of realworld examples. Further, we demonstrate the controllability of our method by varying different parameters.