Extended Multiple Interacting Continua (E-MINC) Model Improvement with a K-Means Clustering Algorithm Based on an Equi-dimensional Discrete Fracture Matrix (ED-DFM) Model

2023-11-01
Modeling fluid flow in fractured reservoirs can be complicated, not only because ofthe permeability differences between fractures and matrix, but also due to the com-plex network of fractures. If the exact fracture geometry is known, accurate flowmodels can be obtained by discrete fracture matrix (DFM) models. However, imple-menting the DFM model for densely fractured reservoirs is practically infeasiblebecause of the computational cost and time limitations. To overcome this prob-lem, dual/multi-continuum models such as dual-porosity (DP), multiple interactingcontinua (MINC), and extended MINC (E-MINC) have been developed. In theseupscaling methods, fracture-to-matrix exchange flows are calculated using shape fac-tors, volume fractions, and transmissibility exchange parameters. The main bottleneckof dual/multi-continuum models is in estimating parameters for exchange flow in com-plex fracture networks. In this study, the E-MINC model parameters are improved byusing a K-means clustering algorithm in Python, taking the equi-dimensional DFM(ED-DFM) model as a reference solution. The E-MINC module is developed underMATLAB LiveLink for COMSOL. Pressure levels for the determination of volumefractions and transmissibility of interacting continua are optimized using a Pythonscikit-learn K-means clustering algorithm. It is shown that for bar-type fractures, boththe E-MINC K-means model and DP model with the Vermeulen equation providebetter results than DP models having constant shape factors. For a naturally fractureddomain, the E-MINC model with K-means clustering provides better results than theE-MINC model with uniformly distributed iso-pressure levels. The transient resultsof E-MINC K-means and ED-DFM models on both small- and large-scale domainsare very similar.
MATHEMATICAL GEOSCIENCES
Citation Formats
M. O. Doğan, “Extended Multiple Interacting Continua (E-MINC) Model Improvement with a K-Means Clustering Algorithm Based on an Equi-dimensional Discrete Fracture Matrix (ED-DFM) Model,” MATHEMATICAL GEOSCIENCES, no. No information, pp. 1–32, 2023, Accessed: 00, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11004-023-10110-9#citeas.