InterPore2018 New Orleans

Research on stress sensitivity of fractured carbonate reservoir by CT Technology and pore-scale simulation

16 May 2018, 18:30

15m

New Orleans

Poster MS 1.24: Pore structure characterization and micro-scale effect on fluid flow in unconventional reservoir Poster 3

Speakers

Mr Zhihui Liu (China University of Petroleum (East China))Mr Yongfei Yang (China University of Petroleum (East China))

Description

Fractured geological formations are ubiquitous throughout the world, and their stress-sensitive behaviors are of primary interest in a number of contexts. In this study, a stress sensitivity experiment on carbonate core plugs in which micron Computed Tomography (μ-CT) technology is applied to visualize and quantitatively evaluate morphological changes to the fracture aperture with respect to confining pressure. Fracture models were obtained at selected confining pressures on which pore-scale flow simulations were performed to estimate the equivalent absolute permeability. The results showed that with the increase of confining pressure from 0 to 0.6 MPa, the fracture aperture and equivalent permeability decreased at a greater gradient than their counterparts after 0.6 MPa. This meant that the rock sample was more stress-sensitive at low effective stress than at high effective stress. On the loading path, an exponential fitting was found to fit well between the effective confining pressure and the calculated permeability. On the unloading path, the relationship was found partially reversible, which can evidently be attributed to plastic deformation of the fracture as observed in CT images.