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The Initiation and Propagation of Fractures in 2D Digital Mineral Mechanical Modeling at the Microscale
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, EAGE 2020 Annual Conference & Exhibition Online, Dec 2020, Volume 2020, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Efficient hydraulic fracturing operations in unconventional reservoirs rocks require an extensive network of secondary fractures in addition to the primary fractures. In the current work, we study the fracture propagation at the microscale in the unconventional reservoir rocks for searching and determination of optimal stress-strain conditions leading to the most extensive network of secondary fractures at the microscale. This work describes a workflow to create a digital rock model accounting for mechanical and petrophysical features of the pore space and the constituent mineral phases in a geometry mimicking rock’s real microstructure. We applied the described method to one of the most promising gas formations in Russia’s West Siberia. Here we present the results of a model based on the 2D QEMSCAN region containing nine minerals with elastic properties, and we studied the initiation and propagation of fractures in/between elastic-plastic minerals.