ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF COUPLED GEOMECHANICAL AND FLUID FLOW PROBLEMS IN GEOTHERMAL RESERVOIR VIA NUMERICAL MODELING

Date

2024-9-05

Author

Mustapha, Yussif

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Until recently, reservoir simulations were conducted in the stand-alone way; this conventional method assumed porosity and permeability are independent of the stresses in the porous media. Recent studies have found out that overlooking geomechanical effects during reservoir simulation leads to inaccurate estimations of pressure and volume. It is therefore necessary to couple the geomechanical and fluid flow effects for a more accurate representation of reality. Coupled geomechanical and fluid flow problems can be encountered in many reservoir operations, e.g., EOR, CO2 sequestration, and geothermal reservoirs. In order to enhance oil recovery processes, external fluids such as water or CO2 can be injected into the reservoir. The injected fluid might not only change the oil properties, e.g., viscosity, but also reservoir rock properties, i.e., porosity and permeability, via increased reservoir pressure. Pressure changes lead to the expansion or contraction of the reservoir, which eventually alters the stress and strain distribution in the reservoir. At the same time, the changes in the pore space affect the fluid flow equations. This coupled problem can be represented by poroelasticity models. In geothermal reservoirs, thermal stresses can be dominant. In this case, thermo-poroelastic models should be used to accurately model the long-term behavior of the geothermal reservoir. In this thesis, such kinds of coupled thermal, geomechanical, and fluid flow conservation equations will be explored and the essential coupling terms will be presented. The effect of thermo-poroelasticity will be shown on a fractured geothermal reservoir for a short-circuiting fracture flow problem.

Subject Keywords

coupled problems, thermo-poroelasticity, short-circuiting

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111542

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis