Determination of Effective Flow Properties of Caprocks In the Presence Of Multi-Scale Heterogeneous Flow Elements

more heterogeneous GUs. Therefore, the lab-based properties must be upscaled to the block scales through multi-stage upscaling. To do this, we need: “to recognize the geometric arrangements at appropriate length scales; to construct models that capture these arrangements; to populate them with appropriate small-scale properties; and to run flow simulations from which it is possible to determine the effective properties at the target scales” (Aplin et al., 2012). This approach also provides knowledge about the types of sedimentary and mechanical architecture that forms the critical controls, and the conditions under which these features affect fluid flow at chosen length scales. We have developed a set of techniques to recognize structural arrangements from core, well-log, outcrop, and seismic data, to construct constrained models from these observations, and to calculate effective properties by flow simulation.