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Numerical simulation of cold and hot water injection into naturally fractured porous media using the extended–FEM and an equivalent continuum model

Mortazavi, S. M. S ; Sharif University of Technology | 2021

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1002/nag.3314
  3. Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd , 2021
  4. Abstract:
  5. In this paper, a computational technique is presented for the isothermal and non-isothermal water injection into naturally fractured oil reservoirs. A remarkable number of naturally fractured reservoirs contain relatively heavy oils that could not be extracted economically; hence, the thermal recovery methods are extensively used for such reservoirs. In this study, the effectiveness of hot water injection over cold (isothermal) water injection in oil production is quantified. The influence of long and short fractures and their alignments on oil recovery are discussed. To this end, a 2D model for two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer is presented. The medium is assumed to be partially saturated with water as the wetting phase and oil as the non-wetting phase. The governing equations consist of the energy balance equation together with the continuity equations of both fluid phases. To take the long (macro) fractures into account, the extended finite element method is employed by considering permeable fracture faces; accordingly, the mass and heat transfer between the fracture and the matrix are captured accurately. In addition, the network of short (micro) fractures is incorporated by an equivalent continuum model. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the influence of injection temperature, initial reservoir temperature, and the long and short fractures on oil production. Furthermore, the simultaneous effect of the macro- and micro-fractures along with the injection temperature are examined. The results show that the proposed computational model is a promising tool that can be used in the cold or hot water injection, and can be employed in the economic feasibility studies of recovery methods in the future. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
  6. Keywords:
  7. Continuum mechanics ; Crude oil ; Economic analysis ; Finite element method ; Fracture ; Heat transfer ; Isotherms ; Petroleum reservoir engineering ; Petroleum reservoirs ; Porous materials ; Recovery ; Thermal oil recovery ; Two phase flow ; Water ; Wetting ; Cold water injection ; Equivalent-continuum models ; Extended fem ; Fractured oil reservoirs ; Hot water injection ; Macro fractures ; Microfractures ; Naturally fractured oil reservoir ; Oil-production ; Two-phase fluid flow ; Heavy oil production
  8. Source: International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics ; 2021 ; 03639061 (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nag.3314