Impact of Confining Stress on Capillary Pressure Behavior During Drainage Through Rough Fractures

Silva, Josimar A.; Kang, Peter K.; Yang, Zhibing; Cueto‐Felgueroso, Luis; Juanes, Ruben

doi:10.1029/2019gl082744

Impact of Confining Stress on Capillary Pressure Behavior During Drainage Through Rough Fractures

Journal Article · Wed Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl082744· OSTI ID:1612956

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Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); DOE/OSTI
Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN (United States)
Wuhan Univ. (China)
Technical Univ. of Madrid (Spain); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

In this work we study, numerically, the behavior of capillary pressure $$(P_c)$$ during slow immiscible displacement in a rough fracture as a function of the degree of fracture aperture heterogeneity that results from two distinct mechanisms: normal confining stress and fracture surface correlation. We generate synthetic self-affine rough fractures at different correlation scales, solve the elastic contact problem to model the effect of confining stress, and simulate slow immiscible displacement of a wetting fluid by a nonwetting one using a modified invasion percolation model that accounts for in-plane curvature of the fluid-fluid interface. Our modeling results indicate that the power spectral density, $S(f)$, of $$P_c$$, can be used to qualitatively characterize fracture aperture heterogeneity. We show that the distribution of forward avalanche sizes follows a power law $$N_f (S_f)$$ ∝ $$S^{-a}_f$$ , with exponent $$α$$ = 2, in agreement with previously reported values for porous media and equal to the expected theoretical exponent for a self-organized criticality process.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018357

OSTI ID:: 1612956

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1542668

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 46; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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