[CCoE Notice] PETR PhD Defense announcement

[Hutchinson, Inez A]

The Petroleum Engineering Department



Invites the Cullen College of Engineering

To the

PhD Dissertation Defense

of

Bingwen Deng



Topic: Numerical Simulation of Coupled Processes of Fluid Flow and Reactive Transport in Fractured Carbonate Formations Induced by Seawater Injection



Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2021



Location: Technology Bridge (Formerly ERP) Building 9, Room 140

Time: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm



Committee Chair: Dr. Guan Qin



Committee Members:

Dr. S.M. Farouq Ali, Dr. Mohamed Soliman, Dr. Birol Dindoruk, Dr. Hanadi S. Rifai

Abstract

Seawater injection is a common method applied in offshore reservoirs, although it often triggers a series of complex geochemical water-rock interactions, including scale formation both in reservoirs and production wells. Naturally fractured carbonate reservoirs are characterized by the presence of two distinct types of porous media, the matrix and fractures, which cause complex hydraulic flow conditions. The mixing of seawater and formation water, which depends on hydraulic flow conditions, is the fundamental cause of geochemical reactions. It determines the intensity and spatial distribution of scale formation within the reservoir and the evolution of produced water compositions into the production well.

In this study, a new numerical model, that couples the Stokes-Brinkman equation and reactive transport equations, is presented and applied to predict the spatial and temporal development of water-rock interactions during seawater injection in the fractured carbonate formations. Application of the Stokes–Brinkman equation in the coupled model allows the accurate modeling of fluid flow in a natural fractured system. In addition, we develop a numerical procedure to solve the Stokes-Brinkman equation and the reactive transport equations in a sequential fashion.

Simulation results show that the proposed model can simulate the coupled process of fluid flow, advective-diffusive transport of solutes and kinetically controlled precipitation/dissolution reactions. Rock heterogeneity, the Peclet number and Damkohler number are crucial factors that significantly affect the distribution of scale formation in the reservoir. The presence of fractures changes the hydraulic conditions and subsequently affects the scale distribution. By simulating the coupled processes of fluid flow and geochemical reactions, we can accurately predict the spatial and temporal development of scale formation and the composition evolution of produced water, which is helpful to evaluate scale risks in the production well.




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