Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium A.G. Fareo - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg SANUM 2016 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Introduction Hydraulic fracturing(also called Fracking) is the process by which fractures in rocks are propagated by the injection of high pressure viscous fluid into the fracture Hydraulic fracture technique is a core technology in the production of petroleum, natural gas, natural gas liquids such as ethane and propane trapped within rock layer thousands of feet( > 2000metres) below the earth surface A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Mathematical formulation A two-dimensional fracture driven by an incompressible Newtonian fluid. z b ( x , t ) h ( x , t ) v x (0 , z , t ) x o L ( t ) A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Model Assumptions The following assumptions are made for our model: The injected fluid is Newtonian and fluid flow inside the fracture is laminar The rock is a permeable medium and there is fluid leak-off into the rock matrix. The rock is a linearly elastic material which assumes small displacement gradients. The fracture propagates along the positive x-direction, is one-sided, 0 ≤ x ≤ L ( t ), identical in every plane y=constant and has length L ( t ) and half-width h ( x , t ). The flow of fluid inside the fracture is modelled using lubrication theory. A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Fluid flow equations in the fracture ∇ .� v = 0 ρ∂� v v = −∇ p + µ ∇ 2 � ∂ t + ρ ( � v . ∇ ) � v Fluid flow equations in the porous matrix Q A = ∂ ( b + h ) = − κ µ ∇ p d ∂ t p ( x , t ) is the fluid pressure, ρ is the fluid density Q µ is the fluid viscosity, A is the volume flow per unit area κ is the permeability Body force is neglected A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

By making the thin fluid film approximation of lubrication theory, ǫ = H ǫ 2 Re << 1 , << 1 , L 0 where L 0 is a typical fracture length, T is characteristic time it takes to initiate fracture. If there is fluid leak-off, T > L U (N.N Smirnov and V.R Tagirova) H is a typical fracture half-width, U is a typical fluid speed in the x -direction and Re , the Reynolds number is ρ UL 0 µ µ U the characteristic pressure is defined as L 0 ε 2 , A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Two-dimensional lubrication theory equations in dimensional form: ∂ x = µ∂ 2 v x ∂ p ∂ p ∂ v x ∂ x + ∂ v z ∂ z = 0 , ∂ z = 0 . ∂ z 2 , Darcy equation ∂ b ∂ t = − κ ∂ p d µ ∂ z A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Boundary conditions and PKN approximation z = h ( x , t ) : v x ( x , h ( x , t ) , t ) = 0 , z = h ( x , t ) : v z ( x , h ( x , t ) , t ) = ∂ ( h + b ) . ∂ t ∂ v x z = 0 : v z ( x , 0 , t ) = 0 , ∂ z ( x , 0 , t ) = 0 . E p = p f − σ 0 = Λ h , where Λ = (1 − σ 2 ) B E and σ are Youngs modulus and Poisson ratio respectively and B is the unit breadth along y . p d ( x , h + b , t ) = 0 and p d ( x , h , t ) = Λ h A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Flow velocity: v x = 1 ∂ p z 2 − h 2 � � 2 µ ∂ x Nonlinear equations ∂ h ∂ t + ∂ v x ) = − ∂ b ∂ x ( h ¯ ∂ t , ∂ b ∂ t = Λ κ h µ b where v x = − h 2 ∂ p ¯ 3 µ ∂ x A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Dimensionless equations � � + 1 Ω ∂ h ∂ t − ∂ h 3 ∂ h h b = 0 Γ ∂ x ∂ x ∂ b ∂ t = h b At the fracture tip, x = L ( t ): h ( L ( t ) , t ) = 0 , and b ( L ( t ) , t ) = 0 . The initial conditions are t = 0 : L (0) = 1 , h (0 , 0) = 1 . A pre-existing fracture exists in the rock mass: t = 0 : h (0 , x ) = h 0 ( x ) , 0 ≤ x ≤ L ( t ) , UTH and Γ = UH LH where h 0 (0) = 1. Dimensionless numbers: Ω = v l L A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Global mass balance � rate of change of total � � � rate of flow of fluid into = volume of fracture fracture at the fracture entry � � rate of flow of leaked-off − . fluid at the fluid-rock interface That is, dV dt = Q 1 − Q 2 , where � L ( t ) V ( t ) = 2 h ( x , t ) d x , 0 � h (0 , t ) Q 1 (0 , t ) = 2 v x (0 , z , t ) d z = 2 h (0 , t )¯ v x (0 , t ) , 0 and � L ( t ) ∂ b Q 2 ( t ) = 2 ∂ t ( x , t ) d x . 0 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

The problem is therefore to solve the nonlinear diffusion equation Ω ∂ h ∂ t − ∂ � h 3 ∂ h � + 1 h b = 0 ∂ x ∂ x Γ ∂ b ∂ t = h b for the fracture half-width subject to the boundary condition h ( L ( t ) , t ) = 0 and b ( L ( t ) , t ) . and the balance law � L ( t ) dV dt = − 2 h 3 (0 , t ) ∂ h ∂ b ∂ x (0 , t ) − 2 ∂ t ( x , t ) d x , 0 UTH and Γ = UH LH where Ω = v l L A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

h = Φ( x , t ) and b = Ψ( x , t ) are group invariant solutions provided � � X ( h − Φ( x , t )) = 0 . � � h =Φ � � X ( b − Ψ( x , t )) = 0 . � � b =Ψ where X = ( c 1 + c 2 t ) ∂ ∂ t + ( c 4 + 2 c 2 x ) ∂ ∂ x + c 2 h ∂ ∂ h + c 2 b ∂ ∂ b ( c 1 + c 2 t ) ∂ h ∂ t + ( c 4 + 2 c 2 x ) ∂ h ∂ x = c 2 h ( c 1 + c 2 t ) ∂ b ∂ t + ( c 4 + 2 c 2 x ) ∂ b ∂ x = c 2 b A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

The Case c 2 = 0 yields solution of the traveling waves type. h ( x , t ) = f ( ξ ) , b ( x , t ) = g ( ξ ) where ξ = x − c 4 c 1 t Case c 2 � = 0 Group invariant solution for the half-width and leak-off depth: h ( x , t ) = ( c 1 + c 2 t ) f ( ξ ) and b ( x , t ) = ( c 1 + c 2 t ) g ( ξ ) where ξ = c 4 + 2 c 2 x ( c 1 + c 2 t ) 2 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Choose c 4 = 0 so that ξ = 0 when x = 0. Boundary condition h ( L ( t ) , t )) = 0 implies f ( w ) = 0, where 2 c 2 L ( t ) w ( t ) = ( c 1 + c 2 t ) 2 � 2 � df dw 1 + c 2 dt = 0 = ⇒ L ( t ) = t dw c 1 � c 2 � 1 ξ = 2 c 2 g ( ξ ) = 1 x 3 u = L ( t ) , u , f ( ξ ) = F ( u ) , G ( u ) c 2 c 4 c 2 1 1 � − 1 � Since h (0 , 0) = 1, f (0) = 1 c 2 3 c 2 and F (0) = c 1 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

The problem is to solve the system � � � � + 1 F ( u ) F ( u ) − 2 u dF − d F 3 ( u ) dF Ω G ( u ) = 0 Γ du du du � 4 3 F ( u ) � c 2 2 u dG du − G ( u ) + G ( u ) = 0 c 1 subject to the boundary conditions F (1) = 0 , G (1) = 0 �� 1 � − 4 3 � 1 � F (0) 3 dF � c 2 du (0) = − 3 F ( u ) d u + G ( u ) d u . c 1 0 0 � − 1 � 3 c 2 where F (0) = c 1 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium

Once F ( u ) has been calculated, h ( x , t ) and b ( x , t ) are obtained from � F ( u ) � 1 + c 2 h ( x , t ) = t F (0) , c 1 � � 1 + c 2 F (0) 3 G ( u ) , b ( x , t ) = t c 1 A.G. Fareo M.W. Nchabeleng School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Johanne Fluid driven hydraulic fracture in a permeable medium