Fluid Flow in Fractured Porous Media

Recent work focuses on production from naturally fractured reservoirs, working together with colleagues in Applied Geology. We approach the modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs from diverse perspectives, including percolation, homogenization and multiscale methods. Homogenization starts with a micromodel, e.g. that a fractured medium consists of a sugar cube model or aggregated vertical columns. One important feature of homogenization is to relate the characteristic dimensionless numbers (e.g.g gravity number and Peclet number (convective transport through fractures / capillary diffusion matrix)) to the upscaling factor. Consequently different upscaled models are obtained depending on the order of magnitude of the dimensionless numbers with respect to the scaling factor. ECLIPSE simulations can be used to show the validity of the upscaled models. We are also working on development of multiscale modeling and simulation techniques for heterogeneous fractured media with geomechanical effects.

  • Rossen: Characterization of naturally fractured reservoirs
  • Hajibeygi: Multiscale modeling and simulation of fractured porous media
  • Bruining: Matrix-fracture exchange in naturally fractured reservoirs