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Investigating flow properties of partially cemented fractures in Travis Peak Formation using image‐based pore‐scale modeling
Author(s) -
TokanLawal Adenike,
Prodanović Maša,
Eichhubl Peter
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1002/2015jb012045
Subject(s) - tortuosity , permeability (electromagnetism) , geology , capillary pressure , relative permeability , lattice boltzmann methods , porosity , porous medium , fluid dynamics , materials science , geotechnical engineering , multiphase flow , mineralogy , mechanics , chemistry , biochemistry , physics , membrane
Natural fractures can provide preferred flow pathways in otherwise low‐permeability reservoirs. In deep subsurface reservoirs including tight oil and gas reservoirs, as well as in hydrothermal systems, fractures are frequently lined or completely filled with mineral cement that reduces or occludes fracture porosity and permeability. Fracture cement linings potentially reduce flow connectivity between the fracture and host rock and increase fracture wall roughness, which constricts flow. We combined image‐based fracture space characterization, mercury injection capillary pressure and permeability experiments, and numerical simulations to evaluate the influence of fracture‐lining cement on single‐phase and multiphase flows along a natural fracture from the Travis Peak Formation, a tight gas reservoir sandstone in East Texas. Using X‐ray computed microtomographic image analysis, we characterized fracture geometry and the connectivity and geometric tortuosity of the fracture pore space. Combining level set method‐based progressive quasistatic and lattice Boltzmann simulations, we assessed the capillary‐dominated displacement properties and the (relative) permeability of a cement‐lined fracture. Published empirical correlations between aperture and permeability for barren fractures provide permeability estimates that vary among each other, and differ from our results, vary by several orders of magnitude. Compared to barren fractures, cement increases the geometric tortuosity, aperture variation of the pore space, and capillary pressure while reducing the single‐phase permeability by up to 2 orders of magnitude. For multiphase displacement, relative permeability and fluid entrapment geometry resemble those of porous media and differ from those characteristic of barren fractures.