Multiple Porosity/Fractal/Anomalous Diffusion Models, for Heterogeneous Complex Reservoirs

The pore structures of conventional and unconventional reservoirs have various scales of heterogeneity, which lead to multiple flow mechanisms at different scales.

Non-Darcy flow may occur at high and low velocities, at the lower end we have the sub-diffusion that occurs in unconventional resources and that can be captured using a fractional temporal derivative of Darcy’s law.

In naturally fractured reservoirs, the fractal geometry eliminates the assumptions used in the traditional dual-porosity model, because the geological/geomechanical origins of most fracture networks do not justify them. In addition, a triple-porosity/dual-permeability formulation considers both a fracture network and a dissolution cavities network. Both the fractal dual-porosity and the triple-porosity/dual-permeability continuous models are more general than the traditional dual-porosity model.

The fractional and fractal approaches represent two ways to capture anomalous diffusion, which is more overarching than the classical normal diffusion, usually assumed in most numerical simulators.

This webinar focuses on the convenience of using the fractional approach to analyze transient pressure and rate field data. Also, this webinar addresses the pressure transient analysis with the fractal and the triple-porosity/dual-permeability models and the production consequences of these two more general continuous models. All content contained within this webinar is copyrighted by Rodolfo Camacho and Wei-Chun Chu and its use and/or reproduction outside the portal requires express permission from Rodolfo Camacho and Wei-Chun Chu.

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