Abstract - Fault zone properties are incorporated in production
flow simulators using transmissibility multipliers. These are a function
of properties of the fault zone and of the grid-block to which they are
assigned. Consideration of the geological factors influencing the
content of fault zones allows construction of high resolution, geologically
driven, fault transmissibility models. Median values of fault permeability
and thickness are predicted empirically from petrophysical and geometrical
details of the reservoir model. A simple analytical up-scaling scheme is
used to incorporate the influence of likely small-scale fault zone heterogeneity.
Fine-scale numerical modelling indicates that variability in fault zone
permeability and thickness should not be considered separately, and that
the most diagnostic measure of flow through an heterogeneous fault is the
arithmetic average of the permeability to thickness ratio. The flow
segregation through heterogeneous faults predicted analytically is closely,
but not precisely, matched by numerical results. Identical faults
have different equivalent flow properties which depend in part on characteristics
of the permeability field in which they are contained.
Petroleum Geoscience, 5, 53-63, 1999. Download pdf of article
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