Presenter: Mark McClure, Assistant Professor of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering at University of Texas at Austin
Date: April 23, 2013 at 10:00 AM CST
Title: Coupled Fluid Flow and Geomechanical Modeling of Unconventional Hydraulic Stimulation: Processing Affecting Recovery
Description: During hydraulic stimulation in unconventional oil and gas, newly forming and preexisting fractures interact to generate complex fracture networks. We developed a computational model, CFRAC, that couples fluid flow and the stresses induced by fracture deformation in large, complex discrete fracture networks. Modeling these processes with discrete fracture networks is useful because the stresses induced by fracture propagation and deformation are especially heterogeneous and depend on the relative locations and orientations of neighboring fractures. The model also has the capability to describe friction evolution on fractures, allowing it to directly describe the processes giving rise to microseismicity. In this talk, applications to practical problems will be given. Different mechanisms that encourage or inhibit development of productive fracture networks will be summarized. The relationship between microseismicity and deformation will also be discussed.