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Stress-dependence of the permeability, porosity, and compressibility in fractured porous media regarding fracturing condition

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Abstract

Fractured reservoirs are important hydrocarbon resources. However, the production of hydrocarbon makes fractures to be sealed which in turn decreases the production rate. A better understanding of permeability, porosity, and compressibility of fractures would be useful in optimizing the production rate. This research paper explored stress-dependent permeability, porosity, and compressibility of fractured porous media, both experimentally and numerically. The laboratory results are used to calibrate numerical models. With this regard, the roles of fracturing parameters such as orientation, opening, fracture density, persistency, and the intersection of fractures on hydro-mechanical parameters of the fractured sample are analyzed individually. The results indicate that stress sensitivity of permeability and compressibility is more in fractured porous media than in non-fractured ones. The results gained also showed that samples with open fractures and no filling materials, dominant vertical fractures, and high fracture density have the most stress dependency of permeability and compressibility, while in high fracture densities, the fracture and matrix changes are close to each other. The intersection of joints and not persisted fractures act as obstacles. This causes the fluid to be trapped in porous media that affect reservoir recovery and increase financial losses. Finally, an analytical relationship is developed to calculate the matrix compressibility

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  • 14 April 2021

    Figure 5 continued incorrectly captured during publication, this is now correctly updated here.

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Notations

The following symbols are used in this paper:

uhjoint normal displacement

uh0joint aperture in zero normal stress

∆unnormal displacement of fracture

Ctffracture compressibility

ϕffracture porosity

Kffracture permeability

ϕfiinitial fracture porosity

Kfiinitial fracture permeability

Ppiinitial pore pressure

Ppcurrent pore pressure

bcurrent fracture width

biinitial fracture width

ΔVfvariation of fluid volume

Kffluid bulk modulus

ζvariation of fluid content

Papplied confining pressure

ppore pressure

BSkempton pore pressure coefficient

Cpc (f)fracture compressibility

Cpc(m)matrix compressibility

αBiot coefficient

Kpbulk modulus for the pore volumetric strain

Kpermeability

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Parisa Bagherzadeh & Kamran Goshtasbi

  2. Department of Petroleum Engineering, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran, Iran

    Ezatallah Kazemzadeh & Hessam Aloki Bakhtiari

  3. Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

    Mojtaba Kashef

Authors
  1. Parisa Bagherzadeh
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  2. Kamran Goshtasbi
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  3. Ezatallah Kazemzadeh
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  4. Mojtaba Kashef
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  5. Hessam Aloki Bakhtiari
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Correspondence to Parisa Bagherzadeh.

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Bagherzadeh, P., Goshtasbi, K., Kazemzadeh, E. et al. Stress-dependence of the permeability, porosity, and compressibility in fractured porous media regarding fracturing condition. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 5091–5110 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02215-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02215-4

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