Multi-physics modeling of injected nanoparticles effect on remediation of CO₂ leakage through cracks

Journal Article · 16 January 2020 · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.102955 · OSTI ID:1799858

He, Bang ^[1]; Newell, Pania ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); OSTI
2. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

One potential risk in CO₂ sequestration is the leakage of carbon dioxide, which can result in contamination of underground water, creating potential threats to existing ecosystems. The common leakage pathway is through the pre-existing fractures or discontinuities within cement in the wellbore, incurred by the environmental conditions imposed on the cement. Injecting nanoparticles into pre-existing cracks is one of the most recently proposed ideas for mitigating fracture propagation in cement CO₂ sequestration. To demonstrate the feasibility of this new technology, a numerical approach was taken in this work, as it is challenging to investigate it in a laboratory setting. We proposed a coupled ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian)–DEM (Discrete Element Method)–peridynamic modeling strategy within the LS-Dyna package to investigate the intertwined interaction among the CO₂ fluid flow, native fluid (e.g., brine), particle clusters, and cracks within the cement. The numerical results demonstrate that injected nanoparticles can effectively reduce the pressure exerted on the crack surface. Accordingly, the potential fracture propagation at the crack tip would be reduced compared to corresponding cases without nanoparticels as pressurized by fluid flow. This result verifies the effectiveness of proposed nanoparticle injection technology. Finally, using this established modeling strategy, the effect of filling particles on the fracture mitigation for different crack geometries (e.g. particle cluster patterns, aspect ratio of crack aperture and length) and CO₂ reservoir pressure are examined. The result shows that injected particles successfully reduce the fracture propagation in these scenarios.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• Grant/Contract Number: FE0026514
• OSTI ID: 1799858
• Journal Information: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Journal Name: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Vol. 95; ISSN 1750-5836
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English