Multiphase dual-porosity poromechanics

R. Nair, S. Ekbote & F.K. Mody

Shell International Exploration and Production Inc.

ABSTRACT: A finite element model for fully-coupled multiphase flow in a fractured rock formation under non-
isothermal conditions has been developed following a dual-porosity poromechanics approach. The fluid flow and
solid domains are both represented by two distinct but overlapping continua in this model. A single representative
thermodynamic continuum is assumed to be sufficient to describe the temperature dependent response of a
fractured formation. Further, the limited compositional model has been incorporated to simulate non-isothermal
fully-coupled oil and gas flow in a fractured formation. The model has been verified against analytical solutions
for an inclined wellbore in a fully saturated single-porosity formation subjected to pore pressure and thermal
gradients. Next, the model has been extensively applied to the problem of an inclined wellbore and the sensitivity
analyses carried out focus on the effect of thermal loading, heat transport by conduction and convection, fracture
compressibility and, phase saturations on the pore pressures and effective stress distributions near the wellbore.

1 INTRODUCTION
Analysis of the drilling of a high-pressure, high tem-
perature well is a problem in the realm of geome-
chanics involving transport of heat, pressurization and
motion of interstitial fluid, and deformation of the
porous formation rock matrix. Heat is transferred
between the rock formation and the drilling fluid while
the fluid is being circulated to remove drill cuttings.
This interaction alters the original temperature dis-
tribution and a field of non-uniform temperature is
created close to the wellbore (Falcao 2001). This ther-
mal loading enhances the simultaneous occurrences
of rock matrix deformation and pore pressure change
and, their interactive influences on each other. Also,
a temperature change may significantly influence the
pore pressure response, since the pore volume change
is constrained by the lower expansion coefficients of
the solid constituents as compared to the pore fluid. In
addition, non-uniform temperature changes can result
in cracks at both the micro- and macro-scales. Ther-
mally induced micro- and macro-cracks form potential
pathways for fluid flow and cause a reduction in rock
strength (Wang & Papamichos 1994, Althaus et al
1994). An increasing number of oil field develop-
ments in HPHT drilling environments require these
challenges be addressed.
In this paper, existing mathematical formula-
tions are extended to formulate fully coupled
non-isothermal oil-gas flow in a fractured porous
media. Specifically, the black oil model has been
extended to the limited compositional model to
account for thermal effects (Nair et al 2000, Nair &
Abousleiman 2004b). The volatility of the oil has been
incorporated into the formulation. Thus, the gas phase
is comprised of a gas and oil component; the oil phase
is comprised of an oil component and a dissolved
gas component. In addition, the viscosities of the oil
and gas phases, formation volume factors for oil and
gas, gas-oil solubility ratio, oil volatility ratio and
the saturations are assumed to be dependent on the
temperature. The fluid and solid domains are repre-
sented by two distinct overlapping continua within the
framework of the dual-porosity concept. A single ther-
modynamic continuum is assumed to be representative
of the fractured porous medium. The finite element
method is employed to solve the nonlinear set of differ-
ential equations, wherein the displacements, pressures
(in the oil and gas phases), and temperature are the
primary unknowns. The saturations and capillary pres-
sures are the secondary unknowns to be obtained from
capillary-saturation-temperature relations. The non-
linear system of equations in the finite element model
is solved using a direct solver with iterations employed
within each time-step to check the stability. First, the
model is verified with analytical solutions developed
for the aforementioned problem (Ekbote 2002, Nair
et al 2002, Abousleiman & Ekbote, in press, Nair et al
2004a) for the limiting case of the formation satu-
rated with a single, nearly incompressible fluid. Next,
the fully-coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model is
applied to the problem of an inclined wellbore drilled
in a fractured formation saturated with oil and gas.
A parametric analysis is carried out to identify influ-
ential parameters governing the spatial and temporal

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
distributions of pore pressure, stresses, and tempera- Also, the energy balance equation may be written as:
ture in the vicinity of the wellbore.

2 MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION

The governing equations for non-isothermal two-

phase flow in a fractured rock formation will
be described. A detailed description of the dual-
porosity model illustrating the separate and overlap-
ping approach has been provided (Nair 2003, Nair et al
2004). The mass conservation equations for the solid
and, oil and gas components are:

The finite element spatial discretization of equa-

tions 16 was carried out using the Galerkins method
with the nodal displacements, oil and gas pressures
and temperatures as the primary unknowns. The final
finite element governing equations are:
Solid Equilibrium:

The Darcy velocities for both fluid phases are:

Oil Component:
In view of the limited compositional model, the
mass fractions of the two components in the two phases
are:

Gas Component:

The equilibrium (momentum conservation) equa-

tion for a dual-porosity medium saturated with oil
and gas under non-isothermal conditions may be
written as:

Energy Balance:

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 24 Table 1. Input parameters for Figure 1.

22 Non-isothermal case (Primary medium) Parameter Units Value

Isothermal case (Primary medium)
Non-isothermal case (Secondary medium) Elastic Modulus (E) MPa 1853
20 Isothermal case (Secondary medium) Poissons Ratio () 0.22
Porosity () 0.14
1018
Porepressure (MPa)

18 Permeability (k) m2
Grain bulk modulus (Ks ) GPa 27.5
16 Thermal Expansion / C 1.8 105
Coefficient ()
Fluid Bulk Modulus (Kf ) MPa 1733
14
Formation heat capacity (Cv ) MJ/m3 / C 1.7
Fluid heat capacity (f Cvf ) MJ/m3 / C 4.186
12 Thermal conductivity of W/m/ C 3
solid ()
10 Mudweight MPa 12
Bulk Density () kg/m3 1980

Temperature of drilling fluid C 50
8
1.0 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.1
r/R

Figure 1. Effect of thermal loading on pore pressures. Table 2. Input parameters for Weber sandstone.

Parameter Units Value

12.5 Elastic Modulus (E) MPa 27600

Poissons Ratio () 0.15
10.0 Porosity () 0.2
Permeability (k) m2 1015
7.5
Grain bulk modulus (Ks ) MPa 36000
Effective Radial Sress (MPa)

Thermal Expansion / C 3 105

5.0
Coefficient ()
Non-isothermal case Fluid Bulk Modulus (Kf ) MPa 3300
2.5 Isothermal case
Formation heat capacity (Cv ) MJ/m3 / C 2.32
0.0 Fluid heat capacity (f Cvf ) MJ/m3 / C 4.186
Thermal conductivity of solid () W/m/ C 3
-2.5 Mudweight MPa 12
Bulk Density () kg/m3 2128

-5.0 Temperature of drilling fluid C 50

-7.5

-10.0 (c) effect of dual-porosity parameters and (d) effect

1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
Figure 2. Effect of thermal loading on effective radial stress.
The temporal discretization is carried out using a finite
() ()
difference scheme and the values of u, po , pg and t at
different times are obtained using a direct solver with
convergence checking within each time-step (Lewis &
Ghafouri 1997, Nair et al 2000, Nair 2003).
3 APPLICATION TO INCLINED WELLBORE
GEOMETRY
A parametric study of an inclined wellbore is carried
out in order to analyze the following: (a) impact of ther-
mal loading (b) effect of heat transport via convection
2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0
of phase saturations. The borehole is drilled through
r/R
a fractured rock formation along the direction of the
maximum horizontal stress, inclined at 70 to vertical
direction, in the presence of a temperature gradient
between the drilling fluid and the formation. The for-
mation is assumed to be saturated with oil and gas.
The problem discretization, initial and boundary con-
ditions in each of the four aforementioned cases are as
in Nair 2003 and left out for the sake of conciseness.
3.1 Impact of thermal loading
The impact of thermal loading on the pressure and
stresses can be assessed from Figure 1 where the
pressures in both media are significantly higher for
the non-isothermal case. Correspondingly, the effec-
tive radial stress close to the borehole for the non-
isothermal case is more tensile as seen in Figure 2.

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
 60 14

50 13.5

40
13
Soi = 0.5, t = 0.01 day
30 Soi = 0.5, t = 0.1 day

Oil Pressure (MPa)

12.5 Soi = 0.9, t = 0.01 day
Temperature (C)

Soi = 0.9, t = 0.1 day

20
12

10
11.5
0
t = 0.01 days (without convection)
11
t = 0.01 days (with convection)
-10
t = 0.101 days(without convection)
t = 0.101 days (with convection) 10.5
-20 t = 1.1 days (without convection)
t = 1.1 days (with convection) 10
-30 1 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.1
1.0 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.1 r/R
r/R

Figure 4. Oil pressure distribution for different initial

Figure 3. Convective effect on spatiotemporal variation of oil saturations (single-porosity, two-phase; Soi initial oil
temperature (Weber sandstone). saturations).

Comparisons for the single-porosity case using analyt- 10

ical solutions for the stress and pore pressure profiles
have been carried out by Abousleiman and Ekbote 9
(2005). It must be pointed out that in the aforemen-
8
tioned analyses, only heat transfer through conduction
Effective Radial Stress (MPa)

was considered. 7

6 Soi = 0.5, t = 0.01 day

3.2 Effect of heat transport via convection
5 Soi = 0.9, t = 0.01 day
The effect of heat transport by convection has been
analyzed herein using data for Weber sandstone 4
(Table 2). In order to analyze the convective effect,
corresponding results obtained by neglecting convec- 3

tive terms in the model have also been included. The 2

temperature profiles for 0.01, 0.101 and 1.1 days show
a progressive change in trend when convective terms 1
are included.
Specifically, at 0.101 day, a convective front char- 0
1.0 1.5 1.9 2.4 2.8 3.3
acterized by a zone of higher temperature develops. In r/R
other words, due to convective effects, the temperature
curve bulges upward and outward into the formation, Figure 5. Effective radial stress distribution for different
thus marking a significant change in the trend of the initial oil saturations (single-porosity, two-phase; Soi initial
profile. Also, this bulge, i.e., zone of high tempera- oil saturations).
ture extends further into the formation at 1.1 days, an
effect that is not visible when convection is ignored The peak in the oil pressure curve (Figure 4) in
(see Figure 3). the vicinity of the borehole decreases for a lower
value of initial oil saturation (Soi = 0.5). Correspond-
ingly, the effective radial stress (shown in Figure 5)
3.3 Effect of phase saturation becomes more compressive for a lower value of initial
Figures 4 and 5 show the spatial variations of the oil oil saturation.
pressure and effective radial stress for different initial
oil saturations. The input parameters are as in Table 3 3.4 Dual-porosity, two-phase modeling
and auxiliary parameters are as in Lewis & Ghafouri The following fracture characteristics were associ-
(1997), Pao et al (2001). ated with the secondary medium: stiffness (Kn ) and

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
Table 3. Parameters for Single-Porosity, Two-Phase Model. 12

Parameter Units Value 10

Elastic Modulus (E) MPa 3.55

8
Poissons Ratio () 0.2

Effective Radial Stress (MPa)

Porosity () 0.1
Permeability (k) m2 1018 6
s = 0.1 m
Grain bulk modulus (Ks ) GPa 100
Thermal Expansion Coefficient () / C 1.8 105 4
s = 0.25 m
Solid heat capacity (Cvs ) J/kg/ C 582 s = 0.5 m
Oil heat capacity (Cvo ) J/kg/ C 2093
Gas heat capacity (Cvg ) J/kg/ C 1000 2

Thermal conductivity of solid (s ) W/m/ C 2.65

Thermal conductivity of oil (o ) W/m/ C 1.3 0
Thermal conductivity of gas (g ) W/m/ C 0.3
Mudweight MPa 12 -2

Temperature of drilling fluid C 50
-4
1.0 1.5 1.9 2.4 2.8 3.3
r/R
Table 4. Parameters for Dual-Porosity model.
Figure 7. Effective radial stress distribution for different
Parameter Units Value fracture spacings and initial oil saturation Soi = 0.5
(dual-porosity, two-phase; s fracture spacing).
Fracture Permeability (kII ) m2 1017
Fracture stiffness (Kn ) GPa/m 20
Fracture spacing (s) M 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 dual-porosity medium saturated with oil and gas. The
Fracture porosity (II ) 0.02 material properties for the secondary medium are as
in Table 4.
A smaller fracture spacing, increases the over-
all compliance of the dual-porosity medium thereby
18 resulting in a higher initial oil pressure in the primary
medium.This may be observed in Figure 6, wherein the
17 peak of the oil pressure curve in the primary medium
s = 0.1 m (in the vicinity of the borehole) is highest for a fracture
16 s = 0.25 m spacing of 0.1 m. This results in tensile effective radial
s = 0.5 m
stresses around the borehole, the magnitude of which
reduces with an increase in fracture spacing as seen in
Oil Pressure (MPa)

15
Figure 7.
14

4 CONCLUSIONS
13

A dual-porosity model incorporating fully coupled

12 non-isothermal flow of oil and gas has been developed
based on the separate and overlapping technique.
11 The model accounts for the solubility of gas in the oil as
well as evaporation of oil into the gas phase. The results
10 show that the impact of thermal loading, heat trans-
1 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.1
r/R port via convection and the effects of phase saturation
and dual-porosity parameters on the pore pressure and
Figure 6. Primary medium (Matrix) oil pressure distribu- effective stress distributions in the vicinity of the.
tion for different fracture spacings and initial oil saturation
Soi = 0.5 (dual-porosity, two phase; s fracture spacing).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

fracture spacing (s) (governing the compliance of the The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Younane
secondary medium); secondary porosity (II ) (repre- Abousleiman for suggestions and discussions in prepa-
senting the storativity of the fractures); and, secondary ration of this manuscript. The authors thank Shell for
permeability (kII ). The formation was assumed to be a permission to publish this paper.

145
Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
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APPENDIX

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where,  = O, G when = o, g respectively; mT =
[1 1 1 0 0 0]

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Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK