The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has experienced tremendous advances and been well accepted as a popular method of simulation of various fluid flow mechanisms on pore scale in tight formations. With the introduction of an effective relaxation time and slip boundary conditions, the LBM has been successfully extended to solve micro-gaseous related transport and phenomena. As gas flow in shale matrix is mostly in the slip flow and transition flow regimes, given the difficulties of experimental techniques to determine extremely low permeability, it appears that the computational methods especially the LBM can be an attractive choice for simulation of these micro-gaseous flows. In this paper an extensive overview on a number of relaxation time and boundary conditions used in LBM-like models for micro-gaseous flow are carried out and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Furthermore, potential application of the LBM in flow simulation in shale gas reservoirs on pore scale and representative elementary volume(REV) scale is evaluated and summarised. Our review indicates that the LBM is capable of capturing gas flow in continuum to slip flow regimes which cover significant proportion of the pores in shale gas reservoirs and identifies opportunities for future research.
SUMMARYThe role of shear dilation as a mechanism of enhancing fluid flow permeability in naturally fractured reservoirs was mainly recognized in the context of hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal reservoir stimulation. Simplified models based on shear slippage only were developed and their applications to evaluate HDR geothermal reservoir stimulation were reported. Research attention is recently focused to adjust this stimulation mechanism for naturally fractured oil and gas reservoirs which reserve vast resources worldwide. This paper develops the overall framework and basic formulations of this stimulation model for oil and gas reservoirs. Major computational modules include: natural fracture simulation, response analysis of stimulated fractures, average permeability estimation for the stimulated reservoir and prediction of an average flow direction. Natural fractures are simulated stochastically by implementing 'fractal dimension' concept. Natural fracture propagation and shear displacements are formulated by following computationally efficient approximate approaches interrelating in situ stresses, natural fracture parameters and stimulation pressure developed by fluid injection inside fractures. The average permeability of the stimulated reservoir is formulated as a function of discretized gridblock permeabilities by applying cubic law of fluid flow. The average reservoir elongation, or the flow direction, is expressed as a function of reservoir aspect ratio induced by directional permeability contributions. The natural fracture simulation module is verified by comparing its results with observed microseismic clouds in actual naturally fractured reservoirs. Permeability enhancement and reservoir growth are characterized with respect to stimulation pressure, in situ stresses and natural fracture density applying the model to two example reservoirs.
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