Thermal and Hydraulic Fracturing
Some questions that REVEAL may assist to answer:
- How does the Water injected temperature affect injectivity?
- Will there be any potential fracture initiation, or propagation?
Thermal And Hydraulic Fracturing
A numerical finite-element model for fracture initiation and propagation is directly coupled to the finite-difference 3D simulator.
Thermal fracturing may increase injectivity, but the reduced mobility of water and reservoir oil resulting from lower injection temperature may reduce injectivity at later times or provide problematic flooding characteristics.
The REVEAL models are based on the pressure balance within the fracture and the reservoir stress field, including poro-elastic and thermo-elastic stress reduction effects.
The elasticity of the rock determines the internal shape of the fracture, while the shape of the fracture near its tip determines the ability of the fracture to propagate by overcoming the critical stress intensity (strength) of the rock.
Flow within the fracture and leak-off are also modeled, resulting in a fully consistent dynamic model of thermal and hydraulic fracturing.
Applications:
- Fracture geometry description
- Effects of mobility changes
- Fully thermal reservoir modelling
- Fracture initiation and propagation model
- Effect of reservoir temperature evolution
