Connecting Pressure-Saturation and Relative Permeability Models to Fracture Properties: The Case of Capillary-Dominated Flow of Supercritical CO2 and Brine

Wang, Lichun; Cardenas, M. Bayani

doi:10.1029/2018wr023526

Title: Connecting Pressure-Saturation and Relative Permeability Models to Fracture Properties: The Case of Capillary-Dominated Flow of Supercritical CO₂ and Brine

Journal Article · Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Water Resources Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018wr023526· OSTI ID:1539770

^[1];

^[2]

Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States); Tianjin Univ., Tianjin (China)
Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)

Abstract Fractures are potential pathways for subsurface fluids. In the context of geologic CO ₂ sequestration, fractures could threaten the security of reservoirs since they are pathways for leakage. However, the constitutive equations describing the pressure‐saturation and relative permeability‐saturation, key inputs for flow modeling and prediction, are poorly understood for two‐phase fracture flow at the field scale where each fracture might be an element of a complex fracture network or dual‐porosity domain. This knowledge is required for the safe storage of CO ₂ under potentially fractured caprocks. To address this, we numerically simulated two‐phase viscous flow through horizontal heterogeneous fractures across a broad range of roughness and aperture correlation length. The numerical experiments, which solved the modified local cubic law, showed a weak to strong phase interference during the drainage process; that is, supercritical CO ₂ displaces brine if the imposed pressure + local viscous force > local capillary force. The drainage process ended when no new brine cells can be further invaded by CO ₂ . Afterward, we froze the saturation field for each individual phase and calculated the relative permeability by single‐phase flow modeling. Thousands of simulated pressure‐saturation and relative permeability curves enabled us to estimate and connect the parameters of the Van‐Genuchten model and of the generalized ν‐type model to fracture roughness and aperture correlation length. This empirical connection will be useful for assessing and predicting immiscible two‐phase flow in horizontal rough fractures at the large scale.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC), Washington, D.C. (United States). Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001114; DE‐SC0001114

OSTI ID:: 1539770

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1474750

Journal Information:: Water Resources Research, Vol. 54, Issue 9; ISSN 0043-1397

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 10 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (50)

Invasion percolation with viscous forces Xu, B.; Yortsos, Y. C.; Salin, D. Physical Review E, Vol. 57, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.57.739	journal	January 1998
Roughness of fault surfaces over nine decades of length scales: FAULT ROUGHNESS Candela, Thibault; Renard, François; Klinger, Yann Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 117, Issue B8 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JB009041	journal	August 2012
Emergence of anomalous transport in stressed rough fractures Kang, Peter K.; Brown, Stephen; Juanes, Ruben Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 454 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.08.033	journal	November 2016
Non-Darcian two-phase flow in a transparent replica of a rough-walled rock fracture: NON-DARCIAN TWO-PHASE FLOW Nowamooz, Ali; Radilla, Giovanni; Fourar, Mostafa Water Resources Research, Vol. 45, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007315	journal	July 2009
Investigating residual trapping in CO ₂ storage in saline aquifers - application of a 2D glass model, and image analysis Soroush, Mansour; Wessel-Berg, Dag; Torsaeter, Ole Energy Science & Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.32	journal	June 2014
Visualizing and quantifying the crossover from capillary fingering to viscous fingering in a rough fracture: CROSSOVER CAPILLARY TO VISCOUS FINGERING Chen, Yi-Feng; Fang, Shu; Wu, Dong-Sheng Water Resources Research, Vol. 53, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021051	journal	September 2017
CO ₂ wettability of caprocks: Implications for structural storage capacity and containment security : CAPROCK CO Iglauer, Stefan; Al-Yaseri, Ahmed Zarzor; Rezaee, Reza Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL065787	journal	November 2015
A generalized approach for estimation of in-plane curvature in invasion percolation models for drainage in fractures: APPROACH FOR ESTIMATION OF IN-PLANE CURVATURE Yang, Zhibing; Niemi, Auli; Fagerlund, Fritjof Water Resources Research, Vol. 48, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1029/2012WR011829	journal	September 2012
Non-linear regimes of fluid flow in rock fractures Zimmerman, Robert W.; Al-Yaarubi, Azzan; Pain, Chris C. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 41 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2004.03.036	journal	May 2004
Pulses of carbon dioxide emissions from intracrustal faults following climatic warming Kampman, Niko; Burnside, Neil M.; Shipton, Zoe K. Nature Geoscience, Vol. 5, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1451	journal	April 2012
Influence of wettability on interfacial area during immiscible liquid invasion into a 3D self-affine rough fracture: Lattice Boltzmann simulations Dou, Zhi; Zhou, Zhifang; Sleep, B. E. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 61 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2013.08.007	journal	November 2013
ν-X-type relative permeability curves for steam-water two-phase flows in fractured geothermal reservoirs Watanabe, Noriaki; Kikuchi, Takuma; Ishibashi, Takuya Geothermics, Vol. 65 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2016.10.005	journal	January 2017
Two-phase flow in rough-walled fractures: Comparison of continuum and invasion-percolation models: COMPARISON OF CONTINUUM AND INVASION-PERCOLATION MODELS Yang, Zhibing; Niemi, Auli; Fagerlund, Fritjof Water Resources Research, Vol. 49, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20111	journal	February 2013
Changes in permeability caused by transient stresses: Field observations, experiments, and mechanisms: DYNAMIC PERMEABILITY Manga, Michael; Beresnev, Igor; Brodsky, Emily E. Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 50, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000382	journal	May 2012
Fluid trapping during capillary displacement in fractures Yang, Zhibing; Neuweiler, Insa; Méheust, Yves Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 95 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.07.015	journal	September 2016
IMPES Stability: Selection of Stable Timesteps Coats, K. H. SPE Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 02 https://doi.org/10.2118/84924-PA	journal	June 2003
A new formulation for pore-network modeling of two-phase flow: PORE-NETWORK MODELING OF TWO-PHASE FLOW Raoof, A.; Hassanizadeh, S. M. Water Resources Research, Vol. 48, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010WR010180	journal	January 2012
Two-phase flow properties of a horizontal fracture: The effect of aperture distribution Ye, Zuyang; Liu, Hui-Hai; Jiang, Qinghui Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 76 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2014.12.001	journal	February 2015
A vertically integrated model with vertical dynamics for CO ₂ storage : Research Article Guo, Bo; Bandilla, Karl W.; Doster, Florian Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR015215	journal	August 2014
Factors controlling satiated relative permeability in a partially-saturated horizontal fracture Nicholl, M. J.; Rajaram, H.; Glass, R. J. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 27, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL006083	journal	February 2000
New ν ‐type relative permeability curves for two‐phase flows through subsurface fractures Watanabe, Noriaki; Sakurai, Keisuke; Ishibashi, Takuya Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016515	journal	April 2015
Characterization and prediction of CO2 saturation resulting from modeling buoyant fluid migration in 2D heterogeneous geologic fabrics Meckel, T. A.; Bryant, S. L.; Ravi Ganesh, P. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 34 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.12.010	journal	March 2015
Carbon dioxide sequestration in saline formations: Part 2—Review of multiphase flow modeling Cinar, Yildiray; Riaz, Amir Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 124 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2014.07.023	journal	December 2014
Chemical and Hydrodynamic Mechanisms for Long-Term Geological Carbon Storage Altman, Susan J.; Aminzadeh, Behdad; Balhoff, Matthew T. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 118, Issue 28 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp5006764	journal	June 2014
Observational evidence confirms modelling of the long-term integrity of CO2-reservoir caprocks Kampman, N.; Busch, A.; Bertier, P. Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12268	journal	July 2016
A modified invasion percolation model for low-capillary number immiscible displacements in horizontal rough-walled fractures: Influence of local in-plane curvature Glass, Robert J.; Nicholl, Michael J.; Yarrington, Lane Water Resources Research, Vol. 34, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/98WR02224	journal	December 1998
The Fluid Mechanics of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Huppert, Herbert E.; Neufeld, Jerome A. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 46, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-011212-140627	journal	January 2014
Transition from non-Fickian to Fickian longitudinal transport through 3-D rough fractures: Scale-(in)sensitivity and roughness dependence Wang, Lichun; Bayani Cardenas, M. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, Vol. 198 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2017.02.002	journal	March 2017
Fluid flow in synthetic rough-walled fractures: Navier-Stokes, Stokes, and local cubic law simulations: FLUID FLOW IN ROUGH-WALLED FRACTURES Brush, David J.; Thomson, Neil R. Water Resources Research, Vol. 39, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002WR001346	journal	April 2003
Caprock Fracture Dissolution and CO2 Leakage Fitts, J. P.; Peters, C. A. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Vol. 77, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2013.77.13	journal	January 2013
Fluid flow through rock joints: The effect of surface roughness Brown, Stephen R. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 92, Issue B2 https://doi.org/10.1029/JB092iB02p01337	journal	January 1987
Applicability of vertical-equilibrium and sharp-interface assumptions in CO2 sequestration modeling Court, Benjamin; Bandilla, Karl W.; Celia, Michael A. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.04.015	journal	September 2012
Experimental Investigation of Stress-Dependency of Relative Permeability in Rock Fractures Huo, Da; Benson, Sally M. Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 113, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-016-0713-z	journal	May 2016
The Friction Factor in the Forchheimer Equation for Rock Fractures Zhou, Jia-Qing; Hu, Shao-Hua; Chen, Yi-Feng Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 49, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0960-x	journal	April 2016
Non-Fickian transport through two-dimensional rough fractures: Assessment and prediction: NON-FICKIAN TRANSPORT THROUGH 2-D FRACTURES Wang, Lichun; Cardenas, M. Bayani Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014459	journal	February 2014
Lubrication theory analysis of the permeability of rough-walled fractures Zimmerman, R. W.; Kumar, S.; Bodvarsson, G. S. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts, Vol. 28, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(91)90597-F	journal	July 1991
Network modeling of multiphase flow in fractures Hughes, Richard G.; Blunt, Martin J. Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 24, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0309-1708(00)00064-6	journal	February 2001
On the relationship between mechanical and hydraulic apertures in rough-walled fractures Renshaw, Carl E. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 100, Issue B12 https://doi.org/10.1029/95JB02159	journal	December 1995
Non-Fickian dispersion in a single fracture Bauget, F.; Fourar, M. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, Vol. 100, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.06.005	journal	September 2008
Two-phase flow in a variable aperture fracture Murphy, J. R.; Thomson, N. R. Water Resources Research, Vol. 29, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1029/93WR01285	journal	October 1993
Modification of the L ocal C ubic L aw of fracture flow for weak inertia, tortuosity, and roughness Wang, Lichun; Cardenas, M. Bayani; Slottke, Donald T. Water Resources Research, Vol. 51, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015815	journal	April 2015
Two-phase flow in smooth and rough fractures: Measurement and correlation by porous-medium and pipe flow models Fourar, M.; Bories, S.; Lenormand, R. Water Resources Research, Vol. 29, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1029/93WR01529	journal	November 1993
Effect of pore-space spatial correlations on two-phase flow in porous media Mani, V.; Mohanty, K. K. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 23, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-4105(99)00015-7	journal	October 1999
Numerical models and experiments on immiscible displacements in porous media Lenormand, Roland; Touboul, Eric; Zarcone, Cesar Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 189 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112088000953	journal	April 1988
Immiscible displacements in rough-walled fractures: Competition between roughening by random aperture variations and smoothing by in-plane curvature Glass, Robert J.; Rajaram, Harihar; Detwiler, Russell L. Physical Review E, Vol. 68, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.68.061110	journal	December 2003
Approaching a universal scaling relationship between fracture stiffness and fluid flow Pyrak-Nolte, Laura J.; Nolte, David D. Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10663	journal	February 2016
Properties of Porous Media Affecting Fluid Flow Brooks, R. H.; Corey, A. T. Journal of the Irrigation and Drainage Division, Vol. 92, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1061/JRCEA4.0000425	journal	June 1966
Development of an empirical model relating permeability and specific stiffness for rough fractures from numerical deformation experiments: Fracture Permeability and Stiffness Wang, Lichun; Cardenas, M. Bayani Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 121, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013004	journal	July 2016
Non-linear regimes of fluid flow in rock fractures Zimmerman, R. W.; Al-Yaarubi, A.; Pain, C. C. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2003.12.045	journal	April 2004
Observational evidence confirms modelling of the long-term integrity of CO2-reservoir caprocks Kampman, N.; Busch, A.; Bertier, P. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.16668	text	January 2017

Cited By (1)

Roughness Control on Multiphase Flow in Rock Fractures Hu, Ran; Zhou, Chen‐Xing; Wu, Dong‐Sheng Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl084762	journal	November 2019

Similar Records

Two-Phase Fluid Flow Properties of Rough Fractures With Heterogeneous Wettability: Analysis With Lattice Boltzmann Simulations

Journal Article · Mon Dec 07 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Water Resources Research · OSTI ID:1539770

Guiltinan, Eric J.; Santos, J. E.; Cardenas, M. Bayani; +2 more

Quantitative Characterization of Impacts of Coupled Geomechanics and Flow on Safe and Permanent Geological Storage of CO₂ in Fractured Aquifers

Technical Report · Wed Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2018 · OSTI ID:1539770

Winterfeld, Philip; Wu, Yu-Shu; Kneafsey, Timothy

Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security. Final Report

Technical Report · Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · OSTI ID:1539770

Akhbari, D.; Akkutlu, Y; Altman, S. J.; +288 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Water Resources

Title: Connecting Pressure-Saturation and Relative Permeability Models to Fracture Properties: The Case of Capillary-Dominated Flow of Supercritical CO2 and Brine

Citation Formats

References (50)

Cited By (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Title: Connecting Pressure-Saturation and Relative Permeability Models to Fracture Properties: The Case of Capillary-Dominated Flow of Supercritical CO₂ and Brine