[PDF] Tracer Testing For Estimating Heat Transfer Area In Fractured Reservoirs eBook

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Page : 8 pages
File Size : 48,48 MB
Release : 2004
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A key parameter governing the performance and life-time of a Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) reservoir is the effective heat transfer area between the fracture network and the matrix rock. We report on numerical modeling studies into the feasibility of using tracer tests for estimating heat transfer area. More specifically, we discuss simulation results of a new HFR characterization method which uses surface-sorbing tracers for which the adsorbed tracer mass is proportional to the fracture surface area per unit volume. Sorption in the rock matrix is treated with the conventional formulation in which tracer adsorption is volume-based. A slug of solute tracer migrating along a fracture is subject to diffusion across the fracture walls into the adjacent rock matrix. Such diffusion removes some of the tracer from the fluid in the fractures, reducing and retarding the peak in the breakthrough curve (BTC) of the tracer. After the slug has passed the concentration gradient reverses, causing back-diffusion from the rock matrix into the fracture, and giving rise to a long tail in the BTC of the solute. These effects become stronger for larger fracture-matrix interface area, potentially providing a means for estimating this area. Previous field tests and modeling studies have demonstrated characteristic tailing in BTCs for volatile tracers in vapor-dominated reservoirs. Simulated BTCs for solute tracers in single-phase liquid systems show much weaker tails, as would be expected because diffusivities are much smaller in the aqueous than in the gas phase, by a factor of order 1000. A much stronger signal of fracture-matrix interaction can be obtained when sorbing tracers are used. We have performed simulation studies of surface-sorbing tracers by implementing a model in which the adsorbed tracer mass is assumed proportional to the fracture-matrix surface area per unit volume. The results show that sorbing tracers generate stronger tails in BTCs, corresponding to an effective enhancement of diffusion. Tailing in BTCs for sorbing tracers may provide adequate sensitivity for quantifying the fracture-matrix interface area. We discuss requirements for tracer sorption and present considerations for designing a tracer test that would determine fracture-matrix interface area.

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Page : pages
File Size : 23,60 MB
Release : 2010
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A semi-analytical model was developed to conduct rapid scoping calculations of responses of thermally degrading and diffusing tracers in multi-well tracer tests in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The model is based on an existing Laplace transform inversion model for solute transport in dual-porosity media. The heat- and mass-transfer calculations are decoupled and conducted sequentially, taking advantage of the fact that heat transfer between fractures and the rock matrix is much more rapid than mass transfer and therefore mass transfer will effectively occur in a locally isothermal system (although the system will be nonisothermal along fracture flow pathways, which is accounted for by discretizing the flow pathways into multiple segments that have different temperature histories). The model takes advantage of the analogies between heat and mass transfer, solving the same governing equations with k{sub m}/(?C{sub p}){sub w} being substituted for?D{sub m} in the equation for fracture transport and k{sub m}/(?C{sub p}){sub m} being subsituted for D{sub m} in the equation for matrix transport; where k = thermal conductivity (cal/cm-s-K),? = density (g/cm3), C{sub p} = heat capacity (at constant pressure) (cal/g-K),? = matrix porosity, and D = tracer diffusion coefficient (cm2/s), with the subscripts w and m referring to water and matrix, respectively. A significant advantage of the model is that it executes in a fraction of second on a single-CPU personal computer, making it very amenable for parameter estimation algorithms that involve repeated runs to find global minima. The combined thermal-mass transport model was used to evaluate the ability to estimate when thermal breakthrough would occur in a multi-well EGS configuration using thermally degrading tracers. Calculations were conducted to evaluate the range of values of Arrhenius parameters, A and E{sub {alpha}} (pre-exponential factor, 1/s, and activation energy, cal/mol) required to obtain interpretable responses of thermally-degrading tracers that decay according to the rate constant k{sub d} = Ae{sup -E{sub {alpha}}/RT}, where k{sub d} = decay rate constant (1/s), R = ideal gas constant (1.987 cal/mol-K), and T = absolute temperature (K). It is shown that there are relatively narrow ranges of A and E{sub {alpha}} that will result in readily interpretable tracer responses for any given combination of ambient reservoir temperature and working fluid residence time in a reservoir. The combined model was also used to simulate the responses of conservative tracers with different diffusion coefficients as a way of estimating fracture surface-area-to-volume ratios (SA/V) in multi-well EGS systems. This method takes advantage of the fact that the differences in breakthrough curves of tracers with different matrix diffusion coefficients are a function of SA/V. The model accounts for differences in diffusion coefficients as a function of temperature so that tracer responses obtained at different times can be used to obtain consistent estimates of SA/V as the reservoir cools down. Some single-well applications of this approach are simulated with a numerical model to demonstrate the potential to evaluate the effectiveness of EGS stimulations before a second well is drilled.

Author : Marc F. P. Bierkens
Publisher :
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 39,61 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781901502589

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Several of the papers here deal with decision making under uncertainty.

Author : Jochen Bundschuh
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 522 pages
File Size : 31,35 MB
Release : 2010-07-05
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0203848101

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This book provides an introduction to the scientific fundamentals of groundwater and geothermal systems. In a simple and didactic manner the different water and energy problems existing in deformable porous rocks are explained as well as the corresponding theories and the mathematical and numerical tools that lead to modeling and solving them. This

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Page : pages
File Size : 21,75 MB
Release : 1984
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Retention processes such as adsorption and diffusion into an immobile region can effect tracer movement through a fractured reservoir. This study has conducted experimental work and has developed a two-dimensional model to characterize retention processes. A method to directly determine some important flow parameters, such as the fracture aperture, from the analysis of tracer tests has been developed as a result of the new two-dimensional model. The experimental work consisted of batch experiments designed to both reproduce earlier work and to determine the magnitude of the retention effects. Negligible retention was observed from which it was concluded that the batch experiments were not sensitive enough and that more sensitive flowing tests were needed. A two-dimensional model that represents a fractured medium by a mobile region, in which convention, diffusion, and adsorption are allowed, and an immobile region in which only diffusion and adsorption are allowed has been developed. It was possible to demonstrate how each of the mass-transfer processes included in the model affect tracer return curves by producing return curves for any set of the defining variables. Field data from the New Zealand was numerically fit with the model. The optimum values of the parameters determined from curve fitting provided a direct estimate of the fracture width and could be used to estimate other important flow parameters if experimentally determinable values were known. 25 refs., 22 figs., 6 tabs.

Author : Malcomm Grant
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 34,82 MB
Release : 2013-02-07
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0323152910

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Geothermal Reservoir Engineering offers a comprehensive account of geothermal reservoir engineering and a guide to the state-of-the-art technology, with emphasis on practicality. Topics covered include well completion and warm-up, flow testing, and field monitoring and management. A case study of a geothermal well in New Zealand is also presented. Comprised of 10 chapters, this book opens with an overview of geothermal reservoirs and the development of geothermal reservoir engineering as a discipline. The following chapters focus on conceptual models of geothermal fields; simple models that illustrate some of the processes taking place in geothermal reservoirs under exploitation; measurements in a well from spudding-in up to first discharge; and flow measurement. The next chapter provides a case history of one well in the Broadlands Geothermal Field in New Zealand, with particular reference to its drilling, measurement, discharge, and data analysis/interpretation. The changes that have occurred in exploited geothermal fields are also reviewed. The final chapter considers three major problems of geothermal reservoir engineering: rapid entry of external cooler water, or return of reinjected water, in fractured reservoirs; the effects of exploitation on natural discharges; and subsidence. This monograph serves as both a text for students and a manual for working professionals in the field of geothermal reservoir engineering. It will also be of interest to engineers and scientists of other disciplines.

Author : Aymen Abduljalil Alramadhan
Publisher :
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 30,57 MB
Release : 2013
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ISBN :

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In order to understand the complex fracture network that controls water movement in Sherrod Area of Spraberry Field in West Texas and to better manage the on-going waterflood performance, a field scale inter-well tracer test was implemented. This test presents the largest inter-well tracer test in naturally fractured reservoirs reported in the industry and includes the injection of 13 different tracers and sampling of 110 producers in an area covering 6533 acres. Sherrod tracer test generated a total of 598 tracer responses from 51 out of the 110 sampled producers. Tracer responses showed a wide range of velocities from 14 ft/day to ultra-high velocities exceeding 10,000 ft/day with same-day tracer breakthrough. Re-injection of produced water has caused the tracers to be re-injected and added an additional challenge to diagnose and distinguish tracer responses affected by water recycling. Historical performance of the field showed simultaneous water breakthrough of a large number of wells covering entire Sherrod area. This research investigate analytical, numerical, and inversion modeling approaches in order to categorize, history match, and connect tracer responses with water-cut responses with the objective to construct multiple fracture realizations based entirely on water-cut and tracers' profiles. In addition, the research highlight best practices in the design of inter-well tracer tests in naturally fractured reservoirs through lessons learned from Sherrod Area. The large number of tracer responses from Sherrod case presents a case of naturally fractured reservoir characterization entirely based on dynamic data. Results indicates that tracer responses could be categorized based on statistical analysis of tracer recoveries of all pairs of injectors and producers with each category showing distinguishing behavior in tracers' movement and breakthrough time. In addition, it showed that tracer and water-cut responses in the field are dominantly controlled by the fracture system revealing minimum information about the matrix system. Numerical simulation studies showed limitation in dual porosity formulation/solvers to model tracer velocities exceeding 2200 ft/day. Inversion modeling using Gradzone Analysis showed that east and north-west of Sherrod have significantly lower pore volume compared to south-west. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/151192

Author : E. Okandan
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 31,86 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9400936915

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During the oil crisis of 1973, we suddenly became aware that fossil fuel resources are limited and will be exhausted soon if new alternatives are not put into use immediately. Conservation measures and extensive research on new sources of energy has eased the demand on fossil fuels, especially crude oil. Geothermal energy as an alternative; source had its share in this devel opment and electricity producing capacity increased from 700 to 4700 MWe during 1970 to 1985. Geothermal reservoir engineering emerged as an impor tant field in the assessment of geothermal sources. During the 25 years of its development, several areas were identified that needed further at tention for the correct description and interpretation of reservoir be havior. This fact as accepted by all operators is vital for the steady and continuous operation of power plants. During this NATO ASI, a detailed review of theory and field case his tories on geothermal reservoir engineering was presented. In understanding .the reservoir, conceptual models, natural state models, well bore measure ments, transient and tracer testing provide data which are indispensable. They are powerful tools in understanding reservoir behavior provided we know how to interpret them. During lectures the theory and practical applications of these interpretive methods were discussed.