Analysis of fracture interference – Coupling of flow and geomechanical computations with discrete fracture modeling using MRST

Abstract

A new discrete fracture model (DFM) is implemented in the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) – an open-source reservoir simulation software – to couple flow and geomechanical computations. Unstructured meshing is used to discretize the gridding domain. The matrix-to-matrix, fracture-to-fracture, and fracture-to-matrix fluxes are computed explicitly in the computational domain following the control volume formulation. The flow calculations and the geomechanical computations are solved sequentially: the governing equations for poroelasticity are incorporated, and the fixed stress splitting coupling methodology is employed. The results are compared with an uncoupled model, where the geomechanical effects are ignored.Several case studies demonstrate the utility of the proposed coupling strategy for analyzing production performance and stress evolution in hydraulically fracturing formations. This model considers the effects of poroelasticity and stress or strain variation in the fractured domains, and factors influencing the behaviour of fracture interference are examined. Finally, an analysis of the computational costs is also presented.This simulation approach can more accurately capture the dynamic behaviour of stress evolution and fracture interference in hydraulically fractured wells. This flexible framework can incorporate more functional modules, including fracture propagation, in future works. The results illustrate the significance of incorporating geomechanical effects in the flow simulation process. Insights pertinent to the operational strategies are also highlighted based on the simulation results.