Pressure drop of water flow between injection and production wells intersected by a circular fracture

Abstract

The pressure drop between injection and production wells in a narrow fracture is examined numerically, analytically and experimentally. The model of the fracture used in this study consists of two parallel circular disks between which spherical particles are randomly packed. The pressure drop for the two-dimensional water flow through the fracture is a function of Reynolds number, void fraction, distance between the wells, well diameter and fracture diameter. The analytically calculated result, using Darcy's law, agrees with both the numerically calculated and the experimentally measured values. The analytical solution indicates that the pressure drop is sensitive to the distance between two wells, whereas it is insensitive to the fracture diameter. A simplified equation for the pressure drop is presented from the analytical solution.