Waterflood-induced fractures,also known as self-induced fractures,spontaneously form at injection wells during waterflooding.These fractures propagate long distances through rock,allowing injected fluids to travel far...Waterflood-induced fractures,also known as self-induced fractures,spontaneously form at injection wells during waterflooding.These fractures propagate long distances through rock,allowing injected fluids to travel far away from a well,both within and outside the flooding layer.Essentially,the me-chanics of waterflood-induced fracture propagation is similar to that of hydraulic fractures,which are intentionally created for reservoir stimulation.Fracturing models developed for hydraulic fractures can also be applied to waterflood-induced fractures.However,waterflood-induced fractures are typically pumped with much larger volumes of water or brine and grow much longer in time.As a result,fluid leakoff from waterflood fractures into the formation is more extensive and two-dimensional(2D),a characteristic that is often ignored in a majority of modern fracturing simulators,making their appli-cation to waterflood fractures unreliable.In this work,we revisit the problem of leakoff for long-growing waterflood-induced fractures and develop a new analytical model for fluid leakoff that provides improved predictions of fracture geometry and can be easily implemented in fracturing simulators.We incorporate the developed solution into the classical Perkins-Kern-Nordgren(PKN)model of fracture growth,which shows that the choice of the Carter or a 2D leakoff model greatly impacts fracture ge-ometry at large time.The conducted parametric study shows while a toughness-dominated regime af-fects fracture evolution,most of fracture lifetime occurs in a viscosity-and-leakoff-dominated regime.We also develop an asymptotic solution for a leakoff profile in the limiting case of 2D leakoff domination(~~M and~~K).Finally,we study 3D fracture growth and out-of-zone injection with three layers and a complex structure of zones.The study shows that ignoring the 2D leakoff during simulation results in a significant overestimation of fracture geometry predictions.The present work,thus,plays an important role in improving waterflood fracture modelling,as it highlights the significance of 2D leakoff in waterflood-induced fractures and provides a reliable analytical model for fluid leakoff that can be incorporated into modern fracture simulators.展开更多
文摘Waterflood-induced fractures,also known as self-induced fractures,spontaneously form at injection wells during waterflooding.These fractures propagate long distances through rock,allowing injected fluids to travel far away from a well,both within and outside the flooding layer.Essentially,the me-chanics of waterflood-induced fracture propagation is similar to that of hydraulic fractures,which are intentionally created for reservoir stimulation.Fracturing models developed for hydraulic fractures can also be applied to waterflood-induced fractures.However,waterflood-induced fractures are typically pumped with much larger volumes of water or brine and grow much longer in time.As a result,fluid leakoff from waterflood fractures into the formation is more extensive and two-dimensional(2D),a characteristic that is often ignored in a majority of modern fracturing simulators,making their appli-cation to waterflood fractures unreliable.In this work,we revisit the problem of leakoff for long-growing waterflood-induced fractures and develop a new analytical model for fluid leakoff that provides improved predictions of fracture geometry and can be easily implemented in fracturing simulators.We incorporate the developed solution into the classical Perkins-Kern-Nordgren(PKN)model of fracture growth,which shows that the choice of the Carter or a 2D leakoff model greatly impacts fracture ge-ometry at large time.The conducted parametric study shows while a toughness-dominated regime af-fects fracture evolution,most of fracture lifetime occurs in a viscosity-and-leakoff-dominated regime.We also develop an asymptotic solution for a leakoff profile in the limiting case of 2D leakoff domination(~~M and~~K).Finally,we study 3D fracture growth and out-of-zone injection with three layers and a complex structure of zones.The study shows that ignoring the 2D leakoff during simulation results in a significant overestimation of fracture geometry predictions.The present work,thus,plays an important role in improving waterflood fracture modelling,as it highlights the significance of 2D leakoff in waterflood-induced fractures and provides a reliable analytical model for fluid leakoff that can be incorporated into modern fracture simulators.
