Method and system for modeling and predicting hydraulic fracture performance in hydrocarbon reservoirs
AssigneeObject Reservoir, Inc.
InventorsStephen R. Kennon, Scott A. Canann, Steven B. Ward, Frank Joseph Eaton
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Abstract
A method and system for generating an unstructured automatic mesh and executing computational algorithms using a finite element numerical approach is disclosed. The method is to model a hydrocarbon reservoir, wells, and completions as a single system, accounting for static information and transient behavior of wells, hydraulic fractures and reservoirs in a single model.
Claims13
A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to generate a representation, the instructions comprising:
- instructions for generating an unstructured mesh including at least one mesh element surrounding a representation of a fracture, wherein the representation of the fracture accurately represents a physical transverse fracture down to a physical scale, wherein the unstructured mesh is automatically generated and integrated with both a reservoir mesh and a well bore mesh;
- and
- instructions for generating a plurality of mesh rings around the representation of the fracture to accurately capture transient behaviors, wherein a number and spacing of the mesh rings is controlled automatically based on specification from a user through an input hardware device specifying a desired mesh spacing around the representation of the fracture.
A method comprising:
- iteratively analyzing at least one fracture in a hydrocarbon reservoir by modeling the hydrocarbon reservoir to account for static information and transient behavior of the at least one fracture and the hydrocarbon reservoir;
- and
- enhancing development of an oil field based on the analysis of the at least one fracture,
- wherein iteratively analyzing the at least one fracture comprises generating a semi-structured mesh corresponding to a fractured portion of the hydrocarbon reservoir to flow model the fractured portion, wherein the fractured portion is modeled by a plurality of finite elements having a width and shape corresponding to physical fracture width, and wherein the semi-structured mesh is smoothly coupled with a reservoir mesh and a well bore mesh.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.