# US 10,502,864 B2 · Method and device for determining damage to a geological model > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,502,864 B2 - Document ID: US10502864B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/103,244 - Filed: 2014-11-25 - Published: 2017-01-26 - Granted: 2019-12-10 - Earliest claimed: 2013-12-09 - Assignees: Total SA - Applicants: Total SA - Inventors: Bernard Corre; Alexandre Lapene; Rafik Affes - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10502864B2 ## CPC - G01V 20/00: Geomodelling in general - G06F 30/20: Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) - G06F 30/23: using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM] - G06F 2111/10: Numerical modelling - G01V: GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS (means for indicating the location of accidentally buried, e.g. snow-buried, persons A63B29/02) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract The present invention relates to the determination of damage to a geological model comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links each linking two nodes from the plurality of nodes. For each link from the plurality of links, the determination of damage comprises determining a force applied to said link. If the force is greater than a force threshold value, for each node of the two nodes from the plurality of nodes linked together by said link, the determination of damage comprises creating a contact sphere associated with said node, and eliminating the link. The determination of damage comprises determining a plurality of contacts between spheres comprising at least one contact between spheres, each contact between spheres associating two contact spheres from the plurality of contact spheres. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for determining damage to a geological model, said method being implemented by computer means, said geological model comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links, each link from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the plurality of nodes, the method comprising the following steps, for each link i from the plurality of links: determining a force applied fappi to said link, if said force is greater than a force threshold value fci: for each node j of the two nodes from the plurality of nodes linked together by said link i, creating a contact sphere associated with said node j, eliminating said link i, determining a plurality of contacts between spheres comprising at least one contact between spheres, each contact between spheres from the plurality of contacts between spheres associating two contact spheres from the plurality of contact spheres, wherein a first plurality of nodes from the plurality of node of the geological model is associated with a first geological phase modeled by the geological model, a second plurality of nodes from the plurality of nodes of the geological model is associated with a second geological phase modeled by the geological model, a plurality of first geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the first plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of first geological phase links is associated a first geological phase rigidity value kϕ1 and a first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 determined on the basis of an elastic modulus value of the first geological phase Eϕ1 modeled by the geological model and a tensile strength threshold value of the first geological phase σϕ1 modeled by the geological model, a plurality of second geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of second geological phase links is associated a second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 and a second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 determined on the basis of an elastic modulus value of the second geological phase Eϕ2 and a tensile strength threshold value of the second geological phase σϕ2 modeled by the geological model, a plurality of interface links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together a node of the first plurality of nodes and a node from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of interface links is associated an interface rigidity value kinterface and an interface force threshold value fcinterface, and wherein the first geological phase rigidity value kϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link and/or the first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein, for each contact between spheres i from the plurality of contacts between spheres, the method further comprising, determining an interaction force finteri between the two contact spheres associated by said contact between spheres i, and for each link l from the plurality of links such that, of the two nodes from the plurality of nodes linked together by said link l, at least one node is associated with a contact sphere associated with said contact between spheres i, transmitting said interaction force finteri to said link l. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method according to claim 2, wherein, with each contact between spheres i from the plurality of contacts between spheres is associated with, a plane of contact Pi between spheres, a normal component of the interaction force finterN,i, normal to the plane of contact Pi, and wherein a tangential component of the interaction force finterT,i, comprised in the plane of contact Pi, and wherein the normal component of the interaction force finterN,i is a component proportional to an interpenetration distance Dinteri of the two contact spheres associated by said contact between spheres i, and the tangential component of the interaction force finterT,i is a component of opposite direction to a relative tangential displacement {right arrow over (v)}rT,i of the two contact spheres associated by said contact between spheres i, and modulus proportional to said relative tangential displacement {right arrow over (v)}rT,i. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein a rigidity value ki, the force threshold value fci and a reference length value l0i are associated with each link i from the plurality of links, said rigidity values ki and the force threshold values fci being determined on the basis of the elastic modulus value of the first geological phase Eϕ1 and the tensile strength threshold value of the first geological phase Eϕ1 modeled by the geological model and/or the elastic modulus value of the second geological phase Eϕ2 and the tensile strength threshold value of the second geological phase Eϕ2 modeled by the geological model. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein the links from the plurality of links and the nodes from the plurality of nodes are arranged in a disordered regular lattice, preferably in a lattice such as a statistical distribution of reference length values l0 or a statistical distribution of rigidity values k, associated with the links from the plurality of links, is a unimodal statistical distribution. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, further comprising the following steps, applying a plurality of limit conditions to a plurality of limit nodes from the plurality of nodes, and for each node i from the plurality of nodes, determining a spatial position ri of said node i. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method according to claim 6, wherein the determination of the spatial position ri for each node i from the plurality of nodes comprises either a minimization of a potential energy εp of the geological model, or an integration of a plurality of motion equations associated with the nodes. ### Claim 8 A device for determining damage to a geological model, said geological model comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links, each link from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the plurality of nodes, the device comprising a processor, wherein the processor performs the following: for each link from the plurality of links: determining a force applied to said link, if said force is greater than a force threshold value: for each node of the two nodes from the plurality of nodes linked together by said link, creating a contact sphere associated with said node, and eliminating said link, determining a plurality of contacts between spheres comprising at least one contact between spheres, each contact between spheres associating two contact spheres from the plurality of contact spheres, wherein a first plurality of nodes from the plurality of node of the geological model is associated with a first geological phase modeled by the geological model, a second plurality of nodes from the plurality of nodes of the geological model is associated with a second geological phase modeled by the geological model, a plurality of first geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the first plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of first geological phase links is associated a first geological phase rigidity value kϕi and a first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 determined on the basis of an elastic modulus value of the first geological phase Eϕ1 modeled by the geological model and a tensile strength threshold value of the first geological phase σϕ1 modeled by the geological model, a plurality of second geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of second geological phase links is associated a second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 and a second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 determined on the basis of an elastic modulus values Eϕ2 and of the second geological phase and a tensile strength threshold value σϕ2 of the second geological phase modeled by the geological model, a plurality of interface links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together a node of the first plurality of nodes and a node from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of interface links is associated an interface rigidity value kinterface and an interface force threshold value fcinterface, and wherein the first geological phase rigidity value kϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link and/or the first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link. ### Claim 9 A computer program product comprising instructions for the implementation, when this program is executed by a processor, for determining damage to a geological model, said geological model comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links, each link from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the plurality of nodes, comprising the following steps: for each link from the plurality of links: determining a force applied to said link, if said force is greater than a force threshold value: for each node of the two nodes from the plurality of nodes linked together by said link, creating a contact sphere associated with said node, and eliminating said link, determining a plurality of contacts between spheres comprising at least one contact between spheres, each contact between spheres associating two contact spheres from the plurality of contact spheres, wherein a first plurality of nodes from the plurality of node of the geological model is associated with a first geological phase modeled by the geological model, a second plurality of nodes from the plurality of nodes of the geological model is associated with a second geological phase modeled by the geological model, a plurality of first geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the first plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of first geological phase links is associated a first geological phase rigidity value kϕ1 and a first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 determined on the basis of an elastic modulus value of the first geological phase Eϕ1 modeled by the geological model and a tensile strength threshold value of the first geological phase σϕ1 modeled by the geological model, a plurality of second geological phase links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together two nodes from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of second geological phase links is associated a second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 and a second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 determined on the basis of elastic modulus values Eϕ2 of the second geological phase and tensile strength threshold values σϕ2 of the second geological phase modeled by the geological model, a plurality of interface links from the plurality of links of the geological model consists of links from the plurality of links linking together a node of the first plurality of nodes and a node from the second plurality of nodes, with each link from the plurality of interface links is associated an interface rigidity value kinterface and an interface force threshold value fcinterface, and wherein the first geological phase rigidity value kϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase rigidity value kϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link and/or the first geological phase force threshold value fcϕ1 associated with one of the first geological phase link is different to the second geological phase force threshold value fcϕ2 associated with one of the second geological phase link.