Numerical Investigation of the Structure of Fracture Network Impact on Interwell Conductivity

Abstract

We consider two-dimensional single-phase fluid flow of an incompressible fluid in a fractured porous medium, which is located inside a square computational domain. The fractures had a random position and orientation, and the fracture length distribution follows a power law. Fracture networks are simulated using the discrete-fracture model. Calculations were performed for fracture network realizations created by multiple random generations. Fluid flows between opposite boundaries of the computational domain (line source and sink) and between vertical wells (point source and sink) are considered. The influence of the type of source and sink on the percolation probability is determined. The dependence of the flow rate between production and injection wells on the fracture network structure was investigated. The flow between the opposite boundaries of the computational domain is considered. For this case, the numerical dependence of the equivalent permeability of the fractured porous medium on the percolation parameter was approximated by an analytical piecewise function. This approximation was used to estimate fluid flow rates between vertical wells.