Research paper
Analytical model for tracer transport in reservoirs having a conductive geological fault
Manuel Coronado , Jetzabeth Ramrez-Sabag
Instituto Mexicano del Petrleo, Eje Central Lzaro Crdenas 152, 07730 Mxico D.F., Mexico
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Geological faults are frequently found in oil reservoirs and their presence dramatically impacts the
Received 15 February 2007 underground uid motion. Tracer tests provide a mean to dynamically characterize the conduit or barrier
Accepted 13 July 2008 behavior of the fault. Although diverse analytical models have been developed to describe tracer transport in
a geological conductive fault, only few of them capture the fact that injection and production wells are
Keywords:
regularly located outside the fracture plane. In many cases, the tracer path length outside the fault structure
tracer
fault
is signicant. In this work the system is represented by three coupled regions associated to the injector-to-
transport fault, fault, and fault-to-production-well zones. The coupling is simplied by considering linear ow and
ow aligned regions. This model includes hydrodynamic dispersion, an important phenomenon not considered in
previous work. One-dimensional advectivedispersive tracer transport is assumed in each region. Border
conditions require tracer mass conservation. The initial condition is a Dirac delta pulse at the injection site.
The equations are analytically solved in Laplace space and the inverse transform is evaluated numerically by
the Stehfest algorithm. Four specic cases have been studied; they comprehend a long and a short fault path
length having low or high dispersivity respectively. The pulse behavior and the tracer breakthrough curve, as
well as their sensitivity to fault dispersion, fault length and fault uid velocity are analyzed. Clear differences
in the pulse prole and breakthrough curve shape are found in relation to the case when no fault is present.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
0920-4105/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2008.07.001
74 M. Coronado, J. Ramrez-Sabag / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 62 (2008) 7379
2. Problem description
The advectiondispersion equation for Region i is conditions in Eqs. (4b)(4e), together with the two extra conditions at
x = 0:
@Ci @C @2C
ui i Di 2i 0; 1
@t @x @x C1 x 0 ; t C1 x 0 ; t 10
@Ci
Ji ui Ci Di : 2 This last condition results from Eqs. (5) and (3) for i = 1, after space
@x integration from x = to x = and taking 0. By this procedure only
The initial conditions are the second-order derivative term and the Dirac delta term on the RHS
of the Eq. (5) give a non-vanishing contribution, as displayed in
Eq. (11). After setting all mentioned boundary conditions and long
C1 x; 0 mx; C2 x; 0 0; C3 x; 0 0; 3
algebraical manipulations it nally results:
C1 x Y; t 0; 4a h i
1
D1 1 exp 1 2 L1
M B
u2 u1 1 D1 2 D2
C1 x L1 ; t C2 x L1 ; t ; 4b 1
(" # " # )
1
u2 u1 D1 2 D2 u2 u3 3 D3 2 D2 h i
2 2
1 2
3 2
exp L2
J1 x L1 ; t J2 x L1 ; t ; 4c u2 u1 D1 D2 u2 u3 D3 D2
13
C2 x L1 L2 ; t C3 x L1 L2 ; t ; 4d
" #
h i u u 3 D 2 D
2
2 L1 L2
2 3 3 2
M M exp 3 2
14
J2 x L1 L2 ; t J3 x L1 L2 ; t ; 4e u2 u3 D3 D2
h i
C3 x Y; t 0: 4f 2 1
B M exp L1 M exp 2 L1 B exp 1 L1 exp L1 15
3. Solution A B B 16
Eq. (1), the transformed tracer concentration of Region i, C i(x,s), satises D2 2 exp 2 3 L1 L2
N M 3 2
: 17
u2 u3 D3 D2
@2C i @C
Di ui i sC i Ci 0; 5
@x2 @x
The solution in Laplace space is then fully determined in terms of
where s is a variable in the complex plane. In the location where the injected tracer mass, velocity, dispersion coefcient and travel
Ci(0) = 0 (i.e. x 0), the solution can be found by seeking solutions distance in the three regions. To obtain the tracer behavior in real
space the inverse Laplace transform should be calculated. Here, it is
of the form C i exp(x). The characteristic equation for = (s)
yields the roots done numerically by the Stehfest (1970) algorithm. The inversion
formula requires the integration of Eqs. (7)(9) along the imaginary
q axes in the s-complex plane. The integration line should leave all
i ui singularities appearing in Eqs. (12)(17) on its left side. To analyze the
F 1F 1 4sDi =u2i : 6
2Di Laplace inversion restrictions we write s = r exp(i) and let r with
/2 b b /2. We found that assuming Di and ui positive, non-zero and
The solution for each region is nite, there are no additional restrictions on the parameter values.
In the limiting case where the three regions have the same
8
< 1 parameters upand D, then
the single-region model is recovered,
A exp x for x b0
C1 7 C x; s m= 1 4sD=u2 exp x, where is given by Eq. (6).
: B exp 1 x B exp 1 x for 0bx b L1
In real space
p it jtranslates intok the well known expression C x; t
m= 4Dt exp xut 2 =4Dt .
In order to treat and analyze the solutions it is very useful to change
2
C 2 M exp x M exp 2 x for L1 V x V L1 L2 8 variables and introduce certain appropriate dimensionless parameters.
The new dimensionless space and time variables to be used are
C 3 N exp 3 x for xNL1 L2 9
xD x=L; tD t=tc and sD stc 18
where conditions (4a) and (4f) are used. Here A+, B+, B, M+, M, N are where L is a given estimated length for the total path distance, and tc
function of s. These six functions are determined by the four boundary is a characteristic total transit time. tc can be for example the tracer
76 M. Coronado, J. Ramrez-Sabag / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 62 (2008) 7379
Fig. 3. Case I: High velocity and high dispersivity inside the fault. Plots (a) to (d) give the tracer concentration prole at four times tD = {0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1}. Here d1 = d3 = 0.1, d2 = 0.8,
a1 = a3 = 0.1, a2 = 0.1, b1 = b3 = 0.2 and b2 = 20 have been set. The continuous line shows the three-region model, and the broken line the case when the fault is not present.
peak arrival time or the average transit time. The dimensionless para- 4.1. Case I: long fault with high dispersion
meters to be employed are
We examine the case of a long fault with d1 = d3 = 0.1 and d2 = 0.8. It
means that the fault length represents 80% of the whole tracer path.
ai i =L; bi ui tc =L and di Li =L 19
We assume that the uid velocity in the fault is 100 times larger than
the velocity in Region 1, it means u2/u1 = 100. Further, we take a fault
for i = 1,2 or 3. Here i is the i-region dispersivity. The assumption dispersion coefcient hundred times larger than the value in Region 1,
Di = iui was made. The use of the local Peclet number, Pei = i/Li i.e. D2/D1 = 100. Also, we consider that Region 1 and Region 3 have the
instead of parameter ai would complicate the analysis since it couples same dispersivity and tracer velocity with values a1 = a3 = 0.1 and
the effects of dispersivity and local path length, Li. It is to be noticed b1 = b3 = 0.2 (notice that condition b1 N a1 is satised). These considera-
that the dimensionless time tD is independent of any other model tions yield a2 = 0.1 and b2 = 20.
parameter (such as ui or Li); by this mean, the time variable keeps the The tracer concentration as function of space for the xed times
same in all three regions, and therefore model analysis and data tD = {0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0} is displayed in Fig. 3. In this gure the plot series
tting becomes mathematically easier. from (a) to (d) show the motion of a pulse injected at xD = 0 and
The parameters ai and di are positive and take values smaller than moving to the right, through Regions 1, 2 and 3 in sequence. In these
the unity, since i b Li b L. It also holds di = 1. Further, we can write graphs the three-region model (solid line) and a one-region model
bi = (uitc/i)ai, and since uitc N Li N i it follows bi N ai. By assuming with the properties of Region 1 (broken gray line) are displayed. This
u2 u1 u3, it yields b1 b1, b3 b1 and b2 N1. Also b2 is required. The last curve represents the case appearing when the fault is not present
number of free parameters in the model is ten; they are grouped as in the reservoir; which describes a slow pulse. The solid line shows
dimensionless dispersivities {ai}, normalized velocities {bi}, fractional abrupt derivatives changes at interfaces located at xD = 0.1 and 0.9 due
path lengths {di} and the linear scale parameter m/u1. to the imposed discontinuities in the tracer velocity and dispersion
When using the variable sD instead of s, the tracer concentration in coefcient. At short times, as that displayed in plot (a), the solid curve
Laplace space C i (sD) has dimensions of concentration. We can in- is similar to the broken line curve; however, they become different as
troduce a dimensionless concentration C D i(sD) = C i(sD)/(m/u1tc), since
p the pulse advances in Region 2. A relatively high peak is generated in
B m=u tc 1 4sD a1 =b1 . In this case the function B translates into
p1
B 1= 1 4sD a1 =b1 . The tracer concentration, m/u1tc, means the
tracer mass injected divided by the total uid volume introduced in
the formation during the characteristic tracer transit time tc. This
interpretation follows from setting u1 = QA1, where Q is the uid vol-
ume ow rate (volume/time) along the system, and A1 the channel
cross-section in Region 1.
4. Results
Fig. 5. Case II: High velocity and low dispersivity inside the fault. Tracer concentration prole for four times (a) to (d). Parameters are the same as in Fig. 3, except a2 = 0.0001.
Region 3 near the border due to tracer accumulation at this site since 4.2. Case II: long fault with low dispersion
tracer velocity in Region 2 is much higher than velocity in Region 3
(u2/u3 = 100). It should be remarked in Fig. 3 that due to mass con- The dispersion coefcient in reservoirs is hard to be measured and
servation, the area below each of the curves (a) to (d) is equal. generally involves large uncertainties. In this case we analyze its
The tracer breakthrough curve to be observed at xD = 1 is shown as inuence by considering a dispersion coefcient 1000 times smaller
a solid black line in Fig. 4. The curve displays the standard asymmetric than the previous case, it means D2/D1 = 1/10. In examining this case
bell shape with a relatively short transit time, without any straight- all parameters are kept the same as in Case I except a2, which con-
forward evidence of the fault presence. A signature, such as a bump or sequently is now given by a2 = 0.0001. The concentration prole in
a derivate abrupt change, would be very helpful in recognizing the space is displayed in Fig. 5. Due to the low dispersion in the fault, the
presence of a fault. This is however not the case. Nevertheless, the concentration gradient in Region 2 is almost null, resulting in the at
width and height of the three-region and the no-fault curves are very prole observed in Fig. 5. Furthermore, due to the large velocity in
different; the no-fault case is shown as a gray broken line in Fig. 4. Due Region 2 the concentration there is very low. The corresponding
to mass conservation the area below these two curves is again the breakthrough curve for xD = 1 is displayed in Fig. 4, as a black dotted
same (dispersion ow gives zero net contribution to the cumulative line. Due to the reduced dispersion, this curve is narrower, larger and
crossing tracer transport). with a peak concentration arriving earlier than the solid black curve,
Fig. 6. Case III: Short fault with high velocity and high dispersivity. Tracer concentration prole for four (a) to (d) times given by tD = {0.3, 0.6, 1.5, 3}. Here d1 = d3 = 0.45, d2 = 0.1.
Parameters are the same as in Fig. 3.
78 M. Coronado, J. Ramrez-Sabag / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 62 (2008) 7379
Fig. 7. Tracer breakthrough curves for a short fault having high dispersion a2 = 0.1 (solid Fig. 9. Tracer breakthrough curves for a long fault with high dispersion for various
line) and low dispersion a2 = 0.0001 (dotted line). Parameters correspond to those in velocities in the fault. The cases u2/u1 = {1000,100,10} are shown as black broken, solid
Figs. 6 or 8 with xD = 1. Gray broken curve describes the case when the fault is not present. and dotted lines respectively. Other parameters as in Fig. 3. The solid and gray broken
lines here are the same as in Fig. 4.
which corresponds to the high dispersion case. It is to be observed that 4.4. Case IV: short fault with low dispersion
the three order of magnitude change in the dispersion coefcient
yields only relatively small changes in the tracer breakthrough curve. The complementary case of a short fault length with low
Thus, the curve sensitivity to the dispersion difference between the dispersion is examined by considering the same parameter values as
fault and the homogeneous Regions 1 and 3 is low. in Case III, except a2, which is now a2 = 0.0001 (i.e. D2/D1 = 1/10). As
shown in Fig. 8, the tracer concentration space proles display the
4.3. Case III: short fault with high dispersion basic dynamics features as those found in the Case II, but in a narrow
zone. The breakthrough curve is shown in Fig. 7 as a black dotted line.
In this case we analyze the effect of the fault path length on the
tracer transport in comparison with the situation when the fault is not 4.5. Dependence on the uid velocity in the fault
present in the reservoir. We consider in this case a short fault length,
which represents only 10% of the total tracer path length. Since the To study the dependence of the tracer breakthrough curve on the
fault effects are localized in a small zone, an important similarity to the uid velocity in the fault we consider the same parameters chosen in
case without fault is expected. We take the same parameter values as in Case I (i.e. long fault path length d2 = 0.8, and high fault dispersion, D2/
Case I (say D2/D1 = 100 and u2/u1 = 100), with d1 = d3 = 0.45 and d2 = 0.1. D1 = 100), but modify the velocity ratio u2/u1 to take the values 10, 100
The space concentration proles for the time series tD = {0.3, 0.6, 1.5, 3} or 1000. We therefore set a1 = a3 = 0.1, a2 = 0.1, b1 = b3 = 0.2 and b2 =
are displayed in Fig. 6. The selected time values are different from those {200, 20, 2}. The results are shown in Fig. 9, where the three b2-cases
in Fig. 3 in order to adequately illustrate the pulse dynamics. The basic are displayed as broken, solid and dotted lines respectively. For
features of the pulse behavior along the three regions are similar to reference, as in all previous graphs, the gray broken line corresponds
those described in Fig. 3, but slower in time. The tracer breakthrough to the case without the fault. In Fig. 9 we observe the curve changes
curve describing this case is shown in Fig. 7 as a solid black line. Due to appearing by increasing or reducing u1/u2 in one order of magnitude.
the small size of Region 2, this solid line is very similar to the broken With respect to the case u2/u1 = 100 the u2/u1 = 1000 curve gets taller
gray curve, which corresponds to a single-region having the char- and its maximum is reached at a slight shorter time. On the other side,
acteristics of region I (i.e. no fault present), as expected. the curve for case u2/u1 = 10 becomes clearly smaller and remarkable
Fig. 8. Case IV: Short fault with high velocity and low dispersivity. Tracer concentration prole for four (a) to (d) times. Parameters are the same as in Fig. 6, except. a2 = 0.0001.
M. Coronado, J. Ramrez-Sabag / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 62 (2008) 7379 79
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