Manufacturing Method of Large-Scale Fractured Porous Media for Experimental Reservoir Simulation

Abstract

Summary A new manufacturing method for a fractured porous model for macroscopic experimental simulation of an oil reservoir is presented to reduce significantly the uncertainty of reservoir numerical simulation. Large numbers of small-cube rocks with the same size made from natural rocks of selected outcrops are bonded in specific ways to form a big rock. The bonded faces among the small rocks compose a 3D fracture system in the big rock. The big rock is the fractured porous medium of the models for experimental reservoir simulation. Every small rock exists as a particle of the fractured medium. Because the number, size, and positions of small rocks can be adjusted optionally, the size and shape of the fractured media can also be adjusted optionally. With the selection of suitable rocks, adhesives, and bonding patterns, the distributions of physical properties in fractured media (e.g., fracture density, permeability, porosity, imbibition) are quantitatively controlled, and they can be heterogeneous and anisotropic in accordance with objective reservoirs. Experimental models made of the fractured media can fully satisfy similarity criteria. The application example in this paper showed that experimental models can be used not only to simulate and forecast directly the exploitation processes of the fractured porous-media reservoirs but also to verify and/or modify numerical reservoir simulation.