Revisiting Fenton Hill Phase I reservoir creation and stimulation mechanisms through the GTO code comparison effort

Conference · Mon Jun 27 00:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:1322519

Fu, Pengcheng; Mcclure, Mark; Shiozawa, Sogo; White, Mark D.

A series of experiments performed at the Fenton Hill hot dry rock site after stage 2 drilling of Phase I reservoir provided intriguing field observations on the reservoir’s responses to injection and venting under various conditions. Two teams participating in the US DOE Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO)’s Code Comparison Study (CCS) used different numerical codes to model these five experiments with the objective of inferring the hydraulic stimulation mechanism involved. The codes used by the two teams are based on different numerical principles, and the assumptions made were also different, due to intrinsic limitations in the codes and the modelers’ personal interpretations of the field observations. Both sets of models were able to produce the most important field observations and both found that it was the combination of the vertical gradient of the fracture opening pressure, injection volume, and the use/absence of proppant that yielded the different outcomes of the five experiments.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1322519
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-120594; GT0100000
• Resource Relation: Conference: 50th US Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium, June 26-29, 2016, Houston, Texas, Paper No. ARMA 16-0841
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English