InterPore2018 New Orleans

Modeling Energized Fluids Fracturing with Phase Field Method

16 May 2018, 16:58

2m

New Orleans

Poster + 3 Minute Pitch MS 2.14: Numerical methods for processes in fractured media Parallel 8-C

Speaker

Mohamad Jammoul (Center for Subsurface Modeling, University of Texas at Austin)

Description

The use of energized fluids in hydraulic fracturing helps minimize formation damage and enhance well productivity especially in water sensitive reservoirs. Many current fracking simulators use single phase and incompressible flow assumptions to model the fracturing fluids. The thermal and compositional effects of using energized fluids on fracture topology are neglected by such simulators.
A computational framework has been developed to model the fracture propagation resulting from energized fluids fracturing. The framework couples a phase field fracture propagation software with a compositional reservoir simulator. It models the flow of multiphase multicomponent fluids in the fractures and in the reservoir. Numerical tests were conducted to emphasize the effect of fluid compressibility and composition on fracture propagation and geometry.