Fracture analysis in the Amellago outcrop and permeability predictions

Malinouskaya, Iryna; Thovert, Jean‐François; Mourzenko, V. V.; Adler, P. M.; Shekhar, Ravi; Agar, Susan M.; Rosero, Enrique; Tsenn, Michael C.

doi:10.1144/petgeo2012-094

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It has been shown, by example, that the use of border regions in the subsampling procedure allows representative symmetric tensors to be retrieved, even if the physical flow constraints are asymmetric. This contribution aims to improve on the diagonal‐tensor characterization of fractured rock block models [e.g., Gonzalez‐Garcia et al , ] without requiring an extension to periodic models [ Malinouskaya et al , ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permeability tensor of three‐dimensional fractured porous rock and a comparison to trace map predictions

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The reduction from three‐ to two‐dimensional analysis of the permeability of a fractured rock mass introduces errors in both the magnitude and direction of principal permeabilities. This error is numerically quantified for porous rock by comparing the equivalent permeability of three‐dimensional fracture networks with the values computed on arbitrarily extracted planar trace maps. A method to compute the full permeability tensor of three‐dimensional discrete fracture and matrix models is described. The method is based on the element‐wise averaging of pressure and flux, obtained from a finite element solution to the Laplace problem, and is validated against analytical expressions for periodic anisotropic porous media. For isotropic networks of power law size‐distributed fractures with length‐correlated aperture, two‐dimensional cut planes are shown to underestimate the magnitude of permeability by up to 3 orders of magnitude near the percolation threshold, approaching an average factor of deviation of 3 with increasing fracture density. At low‐fracture densities, percolation may occur in three dimensions but not in any of the two‐dimensional cut planes. Anisotropy of the equivalent permeability tensor varies accordingly and is more pronounced in two‐dimensional extractions. These results confirm that two‐dimensional analysis cannot be directly used as an approximation of three‐dimensional equivalent permeability. However, an alternative expression of the excluded area relates trace map fracture density to an equivalent three‐dimensional fracture density, yielding comparable minimum and maximum permeability. This formulation can be used to approximate three‐dimensional flow properties in cases where only two‐dimensional analysis is available.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permeability tensor of three‐dimensional fractured porous rock and a comparison to trace map predictions

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The overall analysis, however, can help to constrain possible scenarios on fracture populations that may be relevant to the subsurface reservoir. Malinouskaya et al (2014) illustrated a method to rapidly estimate permeability of a fracture network, using fracture data from outcrops of a Jurassic carbonate ramp. The method proposed by Maffucci et al (2015) used outcrop data combined with a discrete fracture network (DFN) model to increase the reliability of fracture system characterization in the case of limited data for carbonate rocks.…”

Section: Fracture Simulation Methods For Carbonate Rocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturally fractured hydrocarbon reservoir simulation by elastic fracture modeling

Soleimani

2017

Pet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Accurate fluid flow simulation in geologically complex reservoirs is of particular importance in construction of reservoir simulators. General approaches in naturally fractured reservoir simulation involve use of unstructured grids or a structured grid coupled with locally unstructured grids and discrete fracture models. These methods suffer from drawbacks such as lack of flexibility and of ease of updating. In this study, I combined fracture modeling by elastic gridding which improves flexibility, especially in complex reservoirs. The proposed model revises conventional modeling fractures by hard rigid planes that do not change through production. This is a dubious assumption, especially in reservoirs with a high production rate in the beginning. The proposed elastic fracture modeling considers changes in fracture properties, shape and aperture through the simulation. This strategy is only reliable for naturally fractured reservoirs with high fracture permeability and less permeable matrix and parallel fractures with less cross-connections. Comparison of elastic fracture modeling results with conventional modeling showed that these assumptions will cause production pressure to enlarge fracture apertures and change fracture shapes, which consequently results in lower production compared with what was previously assumed. It is concluded that an elastic gridded model could better simulate reservoir performance.

show abstract

“…Studying how fractures are arranged on outcrops and how lithology varies spatially helps predict their distribution in the subsurface and how they influence secondary porosity and rock permeability (e.g., Dichiarante et al, 2020;Watkins et al, 2018Watkins et al, , 2019, which are critical parameters for fluid migration (e.g., Guerriero et al, 2013;Malinouskaya et al, 2014;Panara et al, 2023;Moretti, 1998) or underground storage capacity for CO 2 (Damen et al, 2006;Fedorik et al, 2023;Rizzo et al, 2024) and clean energy carriers (e.g., hydrogen Heinemann et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracture analyser: a Python toolbox for the 2D analysis of fracture patterns

Borghini,

Striglio,

Bacchiani

et al. 2024

IJG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fractures are the most common result of rock brittle failure in the Earth's crust. Their presence, distribution, orientation, and interconnection are some of the main parameters that control rock's mechanical characteristics and fluid flow. The arrangement of fractures on outcrop analogues is critical in predicting rock mass integrity and subsurface fluid migration and storage. Here, we present the application of Fracture Analyser, a Python tool, in analysing two field case studies. We performed the analysis remotely from manually interpreted images of a fractured vertical wall of siliciclastic turbidites and a horizontal pavement of karstified limestone. To test our tool, we analysed the two outcrops at different scales: the first case, i.e., the siliciclastic turbidites vertical wall, from images at a ground resolution of about 0.0005 m/pixel; the second case, the karstified limestone pavement, with a ground resolution of about 0.04 m/pixel. To demonstrate the efficiency of Fracture Analyser in objectively and repeatedly quantifying fracture attributes and the fractured state of an outcrop from a given dataset, after the digitalisation of fractures we quantify fracture pattern attributes such as number, length, spatial orientation, spatial position, angle between scanline and fractures, apparent spacing, fracture density (P20), and fracture intensity (P21). The examples presented in this study demonstrate the efficacy of Fracture Analyser in quantifying fracture pattern attributes.

show abstract

Fracture analysis in the Amellago outcrop and permeability predictions

Cited by 11 publications

References 28 publications

Permeability tensor of three‐dimensional fractured porous rock and a comparison to trace map predictions

Permeability tensor of three‐dimensional fractured porous rock and a comparison to trace map predictions

Naturally fractured hydrocarbon reservoir simulation by elastic fracture modeling

Fracture analyser: a Python toolbox for the 2D analysis of fracture patterns

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About