A NEW METHODE FOR PRREDICTING THE APERTURE OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING IN OIL SHALE RESERVOIRS BASED ON FINITE ELEMENT METHODE

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the main stimulating techniques to enhance recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs. Hydraulic fracturing in reservoir rock is an important technique to enhance the reservoir rock permeability and thus increases production. This is particularly essential for producing from unconventional resources oil shale reservoirs. Prediction of aperture of fracture is also important for identifying optimum hydraulic fracturing treatment. Thus, it becomes very important to develop modeling tool. Hydraulic fracturing has been widely used to stimulate oil shale reservoirs for economical oil production. Numerical simulation is a useful tool to optimize induced fracture in unconventional reservoirs. As a result, because of the limited flexibility in analyticalsolutions, a numerical method is utilized in this paper to study the problem ofoptimization of hydraulic fractures. Finite Element Method (FEM) which is a powerfultool in solving governing equations of problems in solid/fluid or coupled solid-fluid mechanics is chosen for this purpose. We present a complex hydraulic fracture pattern propagation model based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) and distinct element method as a design tool that can be used to optimize aperture of hydraulic fracture under complex propagation conditions. Finally, according to the constructed numerical models, aperture of the hydraulic fractures which is highly important in the selection of proppant type and size and determination of fracture conductivity is estimated and its change with the defined variables is studied. The finding in this research can be used to explain different observed behaviors of hydraulic fracturing in oil shale reservoirs. It enables to predict the aperture of hydraulic fracturing in unconventional reservoirs.

Keywords:

Finite Element Method , Fracture , Reservoir , Simulation , Aperture