An Experimental Investigation of Fracture Propagation During Water Injection

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Suarez-Rivera ◽  
Jørn Stenebråten ◽  
Phani B. Gadde ◽  
Mukul M. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Fracture Propagation

Experiments and Modelling of Water Injection in Soft Heavy Oil Reservoirs

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J.. J. de Pater ◽  
Matthieu Brizard
Keyword(s):  
Water Injection ◽  
Fracture Propagation ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Unconsolidated Sands ◽  
Coupled Numerical Model ◽  
Heavy Oil Reservoirs ◽  
Matrix Flow ◽  
Minimum Stress

Abstract Water flooding is often applied to increase the recovery of oil from reservoirs. In practice, the water injectivity below the fracture propagation pressure (at so called matrix flow), is usually too low, so that the pressure is increased and the well is fractured. The fracture behavior is however different for unconsolidated sands than for consolidated rock as higher pressures relative to the minimum stress are required to obtain fracture propagation. Injecting water at higher pressure will lead to higher recovery. Our aim was to gain experimental and numerical data to establish the transition from matrix flow to fracturing. We present a series of model tests on different unconsolidated materials using large cylindrical samples with a diameter of 0.4 m. We changed the permeability of the sample and investigated the effect of cohesion by adding cement to some of the samples. It appeared that fractures obtained in material without any cohesion are really complex. On the other hand, adding some small cohesion to the sample, we observed a fracture more like “classical” fractures in competent rocks. For interpreting the tests, we have developed a fully coupled numerical model taking into account the two phase flow of oil and water, and the deformation of the sample.

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