Two‐dimensional finite element analysis of gravitational and lateral‐driven deformation in sedimentary basins

Maghous, Samir; Brüch, A.; Bernaud, Denise; Dormieux, Luc; Braun, Alexandre Luis

doi:10.1002/nag.2232

Cited by 13 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The adopted simple column element formulation to analyze the effect of the tectonic stress magnitude and the duration of the tectonic periods on the final overpressures and porosities. Maghous et al (2014) presented 2D plane strain simulations comparing the effect of compressional and extensional tectonic events on columns under different states of consolidation. However, this paper presents a more extended study highlighting the coupled nature of stresses, compaction and overpressure in basins under different burial and tectonic histories that might be analogs of the bulk shortening occurring in field scenarios.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Obradors-Prats

Rouainia

Aplin

et al. 2017

Marine and Petroleum Geology

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Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractOverpressure prediction in tectonic environments is a challenging topic. The available pore pressure prediction methods are designed to work in environments where compaction is mostly one dimensional and driven by the vertical effective stress applied by the overburden. Furthermore, the impact of tectonic deformation on stresses, porosity and overpressure is still poorly understood. We use a novel methodology to capture the true compaction phenomena occurring in an evolving 3D stress regime by integrating a fully-coupled geomechanical approach with a critical state constitutive model. To this end, numerical models consisting of 2D plane strain clay columns are developed to account for compaction and overpressure generation during sedimentation and tectonic activity. We demonstrate that a high deviatoric stress is generated in compressional tectonic basins, resulting in a substantial decrease in porosity with continuing overpressure increase.The overpressure predictions from our numerical models are then compared to those estimated by the equivalent depth method (EDM) in order to quantify the error induced when using classical approaches, based on vertical effective stress, in tectonic environments. The stress paths presented here reveal that a deviation from the uniaxial burial trend can substantially reduce the accuracy of the EDM overpressure predictions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Obradors-Prats

Rouainia

Aplin

et al. 2017

Marine and Petroleum Geology

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“…In order to be able to model properly the effect of horizontal stress and strain on porosity changes, a constitutive law presented here provides results as relevant as Athy and Schneider models in oedometric context and can also take into account the effect of horizontal stress and strain in basin history. The law is based on the theoretical framework of poro-mechanics in finite strain that has already been considered in an isothermal (Maghous et al, 2013) or thermal context (Brüch et al, 2018).…”

Section: Modelling Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we take this phenomenon into account by relating the elastic properties to the variable characterising compaction, the unloaded porosity φ u . The upper limit of Hashin-Shtrikman (Hashin, 1983) is considered here such as in the work of Maghous et al (2013). It leads to the bulk modulus…”

Section: Elastic Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recent works have been focusing on the study of advanced geomechanical models applied to synthetic test cases (Guilmin, 2012;Maghous et al, 2013;Obradors-Prats et al, 2017;Brüch et al, 2018). Nevertheless, these models are not related to usual basin modelling compaction laws that are linking vertical effective stress to porosity (Hantschel and Kauerauf, 2009;Athy, 1930;Smith, 1971;Schneider et al, 1996;Schneider and Hay, 2001) considering empirical approaches.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Coupled Modeling of Sedimentary Basin and Geomechanics: A Modified Drucker–Prager Cap Model to Describe Rock Compaction in Tectonic Context

et al. 2019

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The aim of basin modeling is to characterise fluids and rocks in a basin considering its history and data partly describing its present state. In usual basin simulators, only a simplified description of geomechanics based on the hypothesis of oedometric strain is used. In order to both enhance the modelling of basin history and to characterise actual in situ stresses, the effect of stress redistribution, horizontal stresses and strain variations during basin history should be considered. To address this point, a coupled basingeomechanics framework based on a new constitutive law is proposed in this paper using the prototype simulator A 2. This framework has been built to provide relevant results for various kinds of basin cases including tectonic loading. A finite strain poro-mechanical approach is considered along with an modified Drucker-Prager Cap model to describe rock compaction under natural sedimentation, erosion and tectonics. The constitutive model can be seen as a tensorial extension of the compaction models of Athy or Schneider as it allows to recover the same behaviour in oedometric context. Simple test cases are modelled considering typical sand or shale properties, emphasing the effect of tectonic loading on present day pore pressures and in situ stresses. It appears that even relatively moderate tectonic loading (5% of horizontal strain) can lead to overpressures of several hundreds of bars and to a complete change in in situ stress regime for deeply buried layers (above a depth of 2000 meters).

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“…Similar models have been used previously to evaluate deformation in gravity-driven settings (e.g. Kjeldstad et al, 2003;Maghous et al, 2014), thrust faults and basins located near salt diapirs (Albertz and Lingrey, 2012;Luo et al, 2012;Smart et al, 2012), and also to model overpressure generation in complex stress regimes Thornton and Crook, 2014). An important aspect of these papers was to incorporate advanced constitutive models that are capable of accurately describing the material rheology in a 3D simulation of an evolving basin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress and pore pressure histories in complex tectonic settings predicted with coupled geomechanical-fluid flow models

Obradors-Prats

Rouainia

Aplin

et al. 2016

Marine and Petroleum Geology

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. (2016) 'Stress and pore pressure histories in complex tectonic settings predicted with coupled geomechanical-uid ow models.', Marine and petroleum geology., 76 . pp. 464-477. Further information on publisher's website: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractMost of the methods currently used for pore pressure prediction in sedimentary basins assume one-dimensional compaction based on relationships between vertical effective stress and porosity. These methods may be inaccurate in complex tectonic regimes where stress tensors are variable. Modelling approaches for compaction adopted within the geotechnical field account for both the full three-dimensional stress tensor and the stress history. In this paper a coupled geomechanical-fluid flow model is used, along with an advanced version of the Cam-Clay constitutive model, to investigate stress, pore pressure and porosity in a Gulf of Mexico style mini-basin bounded by salt subjected to lateral deformation. The modelled structure consists of two depocentres separated by a salt diapir. 20% of horizontal shortening synchronous to basin sedimentation is im-posed. An additional model accounting solely for the overpressure generated due to 1D disequilibrium compaction is also defined. The predicted deformation regime in the two depocentres of the mini-basin is one of tectonic lateral compression, in which the horizontal effective stress is higher than the vertical effective stress. In contrast, sediments above the central salt diapir show lateral extension and tectonic vertical compaction due to the rise of the diapir. Compared to the 1D model, the horizontal shortening in the mini-basin increases the predicted present-day overpressure by 50%, from 20 MPa to 30 MPa. The porosities predicted by the mini-basin models are used to perform 1D, porosity-based pore pressure predictions. The 1D method underestimated overpressure by up to 6 MPa at 3400 m depth (26% of the total overpressure) in the well located at the basin depocentre and up to 3 MPa at 1900 m depth (34% of the total overpressure) in the well located above the salt diapir. The results show how 2D/3D methods are required to accurately predict overpressure in regions in which tectonic stresses are important.

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Two‐dimensional finite element analysis of gravitational and lateral‐driven deformation in sedimentary basins

Cited by 13 publications

References 33 publications

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Coupled Modeling of Sedimentary Basin and Geomechanics: A Modified Drucker–Prager Cap Model to Describe Rock Compaction in Tectonic Context

Stress and pore pressure histories in complex tectonic settings predicted with coupled geomechanical-fluid flow models

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