Probing the influence of secondary fracture connectivity on fracturing fluid flowback efficiency

A deep understanding of the geometric impacts of fracture on fracturing fluid flowback efficiency is essential for unconventional oil development. Using nuclear magnetic resonance and 2.5-dimensional matrix-fracture visualization microfluidic models, qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the influences of connectivity between primary fracture and secondary fracture on flowback were given from core scale to pore network scale. The flow patterns of oil-gel breaking fluid two-phase flow during flowback under different fracture connectivity were analyzed. We found some counterintuitive results that non-connected secondary fracture (NCSF, not connect with artificial primary fracture and embedded in the matrix) is detrimental to flowbackefficiency. The NCSF accelerates the formation of oil channeling during flowback, resulting in a large amount of fracturing fluid trapped in the matrix, which is not beneficial for flowback. Whereas the connected secondary fracture (CSF, connected with the artificial primary fracture) is conducive to flowback. The walls of CSF become part of primary fracture, which expands the drainage area with low resistance, and delays the formation of the oil flow channel. Thus, CSF increases the high-speed flowback stage duration, thereby enhancing the flowback efficiency. The fracturing fluid flowback efficiency investigated here follows the sequence of the connected secondary fracture model (72%) > the matrix model (66%) > the non-connected secondary fracture model (38%). Our results contribute to hydraulic fracturing design and the prediction of flowback efficiency.

A new approach for flow simulation in complex hydraulic fracture morphology and its application:Fracture connection element method

Efficient flow simulation and optimization methods of hydraulic fracture morphology in unconventional reservoirs are effective ways to enhance oil/gas recovery.Based on the connection element method(CEM)and distribution of stimulated reservoir volume,the complex hydraulic fracture morphology was accurately described using heterogeneous node connection system.Then a new fracture connection element method(FCEM)for fluid flow in stimulated unconventional reservoirs with complex hydraulic fracture morphology was proposed.In the proposed FCEM,the arrangement of dense nodes in the stimulated area and sparse nodes in the unstimulated area ensures the calculation accuracy and efficiency.The key parameter,transmissibility,was also modified according to the strong heterogeneity of stimulated reservoirs.The finite difference and semi-analytical tracking were used to accurately solve the pressure and saturation distribution between nodes.The FCEM is validated by comparing with traditional numerical simulation method,and the results show that the bottom hole pressure simulated by the FCEM is consistent with the results from traditional numerical simulation method,and the matching rate is larger than 95%.The proposed FCEM was also used in the optimization of fracturing parameters by coupling the hydraulic fracture propagation method and intelligent optimization algorithm.The integrated intelligent optimization approach for multi-parameters,such as perforation number,perforation location,and displacement in hydraulic fracturing is proposed.The proposed approach was applied in a shale gas reservoir,and the result shows that the optimized perforation location and morphology distribution are related to the distribution of porosity/permeability.When the perforation location and displacement are optimized with the same fracture number,NPV increases by 70.58%,which greatly improves the economic benefits of unconventional reservoirs.This work provides a new way for flow simulation and optimization of hydraulic fracture morphology of multi-fractured horizontal wells in unconventional reservoirs.

A new approach for effectively determining fracture network connec- tions in fractured rocks using R tree indexing

Determinations of fracture network connections would help the investigators remove those ＂meaningless＂ no-flow-passing fractures, providing an updated and more effective fracture network that could considerably improve the computation efficiency in the pertinent numerical simulations of fluid flow and solute transport. The effective algorithms with higher computational efficiency are needed to accomplish this task in large-scale fractured rock masses. A new approach using R tree indexing was proposed for determining fracture connection in 3D stochastically distributed fracture network. By com- paring with the traditional exhaustion algorithm, it was observed that from the simulation results, this approach was much more effective; and the more the fractures were investigated, the more obvious the advantages of the approach were. Furthermore, it was indicated that the runtime used for creating the R tree indexing has a major part in the total of the runtime used for calculating Minimum Bounding Rectangles （MBRs）, creating the R tree indexing, precisely finding out fracture intersections, and identifying flow paths, which are four important steps to determine fracture connections. This proposed approach for the determination of fracture connections in three-dimensional fractured rocks are expected to provide efficient preprocessing and critical database for practically accomplishing numerical computation of fluid flow and solute transport in large-scale fractured rock masses.

Quantitative characterization of irregular microfracture network and its effect on the permeability of porous media

Based on the comprehensive understanding on microfractures and matrix pores in reservoir rocks,numerical algorithms are used to construct fractured porous media and fracture-pore media models.Connectivity coefficient and strike factor are introduced into the models to quantitatively characterize the connectivity and strike of fracture network,respectively.The influences of fracture aperture,fracture strike and fracture connectivity on the permeability of porous media are studied by using multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model to simulate fluid flow in them.The greater the strike factor and the smaller the tortuosity of the fractured porous media,the greater the permeability of the fractured porous media.The greater the connectivity coefficient of the fracture network is,the greater the permeability of the fracture-pore media is,and the more likely dominant channel effect occurs.The fracture network connectivity has stronger influence on seepage ability of fracture-pore media than fracture aperture and fracture strike.The tortuosity and strike factor of fracture network in fractured porous media are in polynomial relation,while the permeability and fracture network connectivity coefficient of the fracture-pore media meet an exponential relation.

Spatial correlation-based characterization of acoustic emission signal-cloud in a granite sample by a cube clustering approach

To extract more in-depth information of acoustic emission(AE)signal-cloud in rock failure under triaxial compression,the spatial correlation of scattering AE events in a granite sample is effectively described by the cube-cluster model.First,the complete connection of the fracture network is regarded as a critical state.Then,according to the Hoshen-Kopelman(HK)algorithm,the real-time estimation of fracture con-nection is effectively made and a dichotomy between cube size and pore fraction is suggested to solve such a challenge of the one-to-one match between complete connection and cluster size.After,the 3D cube clusters are decomposed into orthogonal layer clusters,which are then transformed into the ellip-soid models.Correspondingly,the anisotropy evolution of fracture network could be visualized by three orthogonal ellipsoids and quantitatively described by aspect ratio.Besides,the other three quantities of centroid axis length,porosity,and fracture angle are analyzed to evaluate the evolution of cube cluster.The result shows the sample dilatancy is strongly correlated to four quantities of aspect ratio,centroid axis length,and porosity as well as fracture angle.Besides,the cube cluster model shows a potential pos-sibility to predict the evolution of fracture angle.So,the cube cluster model provides an in-depth view of spatial correlation to describe the AE signal-cloud.

Hot Deformation Behavior of Vanadium-microalloyed Medium-carbon Steel for Fracture Splitting Connecting Rod

Single compression tests were carried out with a Gleeble-3800 thermal simulator to investigate hot deform- ation behavior of two vanadium-microalloyed medium-carbon steels for fracture splitting connecting rod. The tests were performed to a total true strain of 0.92 at true strain rates ranging from 10-2 to 10 s-1 and deformation temper- ature of 900--1 150 ℃, The results show that hot deformation behavior of the tested steels is similar to that of con- ventional medium-carbon microalloyed steels and dynamic recrystallization is easier to occur at higher deformation temperature and lower strain rate. The austenite deformation resistance and activation energy of deformation increase with increasing vanadium content from 0.15% to 0. 28% and thus the starting time of dynamic recrystallization was delayed. Finer recrystallized austenite grain could he obtained at higher strain rate, lower deformation temperature and higher vanadium content. TEM observation of the specimens quenched just before and after deformation reveals that vanadium is mainly in dissolved solute condition in austenite and thus affects the dynamic recrystallization behavior of the tested steels mainly through solute-drag effect.

Numerical evaluation of the effect of fracture network connectivity in naturally fractured shale based on FSD model

In this paper, the effect of pre-existing discrete fracture network(DFN) connectivity on hydraulic fracturing is numerically investigated in a rock mass subjected to in-situ stress. The simulation results show that DFN connectivity has a significant influence on the hydraulic fracture(HF) & DFN interaction and hydraulic fracturing effectiveness, which can be characterized by the total interaction area, stimulated DFN length, stimulated HF length, leak-off ratio, and stimulated total length. In addition, even at the same fluid injection rate, simulation models exhibit different responses that are strongly affected by the DFN connectivity. At a low injection rate, total interaction area decreases with increasing DFN connectivity; at a high injection rate, total interaction area increases with the increase of DFN connectivity. However, for any injection rate, the stimulated DFN length increases and stimulated HF length decreases with the increase of connectivity. Generally, this work shows that the DFN connectivity plays a crucial role in the interaction between hydraulic fractures, the pre-existing natural fractures and hydraulic fracturing effectiveness; in return, these three factors affect treating pressure, created microseismicity and corresponding stimulated volume. This work strongly relates to the production technology and the evaluation of hydraulic fracturing effectiveness. It is helpful for the optimization of hydraulic fracturing simulations in naturally fractured formations.