Duration - 01/07/2005 - 30/08/2009
Funding - A multi-company project brokered by ITF, Aberdeen
Co-ordinator - Fault Analysis Group, UCD
Research Partners
Basic Aims
Recent studies of faulting and fluid flow have indicated that it may be beneficial to incorporate the multi-phase flow properties of faults into production simulation models. Unfortunately, very few studies have attempted to undertake such an exercise for three reasons. Firstly, there are no published examples highlighting the advantages of undertaking such an exercise. Secondly, until recently there was no methodology for incorporation of the multi-phase flow properties of faults which would generally have been considered to be a complex problem. Thirdly, virtually no measurements have been undertaken to determine the multi-phase flow properties of fault rocks. Arising from the recent development of a new method for incorporating multi-phase fault properties in flow models by FAG (Manzocchi et al. 2002) and the recent acquisition of a new multi-phase flow laboratory by RDR, this project will investigate the advantage of incorporating the single and multi-phase flow properties of faults into production simulation models. The project will (i) conduct microstructural and two-phase flow experiments on fault rocks from core and outcrop, (ii) incorporate these data into production flow simulations and examine the sensitivity of flow to multi-phase flow properties and (iii) create “rules of thumb” for incorporating the multi-phase flow properties of faults into production simulation model.
Contact: Conrad Childs and John Walsh
Tel: +353 1 716 2606
Email
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