--> Coupled Hydro-Mechanical Modeling of Fault Reactivation Problem in Petroleum Reservoir Considering the Fault Divided into Core and Damage Zones

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Coupled Hydro-Mechanical Modeling of Fault Reactivation Problem in Petroleum Reservoir Considering the Fault Divided into Core and Damage Zones

Abstract

Abstract

The injection and production of fluids in petroleum reservoirs and injection for carbon dioxide storage in geological media cause changes of pressure, temperature and saturation that affect the state of stress in the host rock and can induce to geological fault reactivation problem. It is therefore a coupled hydro-mechanical (HM) problem and the fault activation or not is governed by the boundary conditions of the problem and by the modeling of the constitutive behavior of involved materials. The fault can be represented by just one filling material or divided into core and damage zones, which is a consistent approximation with field observations. The fault reactivation analysis should to consider that the shear (with dilatancy), tension or compression of filling material may cause changes in hydraulic properties. The reactivation increases the permeability of the filling material, permits the fluid flow through the fault and can lead to cap rock integrity problem. The numerical modeling of fluid flow with geomechanical coupling allows realistic modeling of fault reactivation, which can influence in the recovery process and lead to environmental problems due fluid flow in seabed. A finite element procedure is presented that models fluid flow in a deformable reservoir crossed by a system of geological fault for a real geological profile, in a coupled and totally implicit manner, considering the faults divided in core and damage zones. The viscoplastic Mohr Coulomb model was applied to model the filling fault material behavior, where the simulation of constitutive behavior of sealing faults is essential to the prediction of the possibility of reactivation with reservoir pressurization, and it may cause economic as well as environmental damages