Shape factor for regular and irregular matrix blocks in fractured porous media

Abstract

Abstract Describing matrix–fracture interaction is one of the most important factors for modeling natural fractured reservoirs. A common approach for simulation of naturally fractured reservoirs is dual-porosity modeling where the degree of communication between the low-permeability medium (matrix) and high-permeability medium (fracture) is usually determined by a transfer function. Most of the proposed matrix–fracture functions depend on the geometry of the matrix and fractures that are lumped to a factor called shape factor. Unfortunately, there is no unique solution for calculating the shape factor even for symmetric cases. Conducting fine-scale modeling is a tool for calculating the shape factor and validating the current solutions in the literature. In this study, the shape factor is calculated based on the numerical simulation of fine-grid simulations for single-phase flow using finite element method. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to calculate the shape factors for multidimensional irregular bodies in a systematic approach. Several models were used, and shape factors were calculated for both transient and pseudo-steady-state (PSS) cases, although in some cases they were not clarified and assumptions were not clear. The boundary condition dependency of the shape factor was also investigated, and the obtained results were compared with the results of other studies. Results show that some of the most popular formulas cannot capture the exact physics of matrix–fracture interaction. The obtained results also show that both PSS and transient approaches for describing matrix–fracture transfer lead to constant shape factors that are not unique and depend on the fracture pressure (boundary condition) and how it changes with time.

Keywords

• Fractured reservoirs
• Shape factor
• Matrix–fracture boundary conditions
• Computational fluid dynamic (CFD)