Thermo-hydro-mechanical modeling of fracturing porous media with two-phase fluid flow using X-FEM technique

In this paper, a fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model is presented for two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer in fractured/fracturing porous media using the extended finite element method. In the fractured porous medium, the traction, heat, and mass transfer between the fracture space and the surrounding media are coupled. The wetting and nonwetting fluid phases are water and gas, which are assumed to be immiscible, and no phase-change is considered. The system of coupled equations consists of the linear momentum balance of solid phase, wetting and nonwetting fluid continuities, and thermal energy conservation. The main variables used to solve the system of equations are solid phase displacement, wetting fluid pressure, capillary pressure, and temperature. The fracture is assumed to impose the strong discontinuity in the displacement field and weak discontinuities in the fluid pressure, capillary pressure, and temperature fields. The mode I fracture propagation is employed using a cohesive fracture model. Finally, several numerical examples are solved to illustrate the capability of the proposed computational algorithm. It is shown that the effect of thermal expansion on the effective stress can influence the rate of fracture propagation and the injection pressure in hydraulic fracturing process. Moreover, the effect of thermal loading is investigated properly on fracture opening and fluids flow in unsaturated porous media, and the convective heat transfer within the fracture is captured successfully. It is shown how the proposed computational model is capable of modeling the fully coupled thermal fracture propagation in unsaturated porous media.     

Hydro‐mechanical modeling of cohesive crack propagation in multiphase porous media using the extended finite element method

In this paper, a numerical model is developed for the fully coupled hydro‐mechanical analysis of deformable, progressively fracturing porous media interacting with the flow of two immiscible, compressible wetting and non‐wetting pore fluids, in which the coupling between various processes is taken into account. The governing equations involving the coupled solid skeleton deformation and two‐phase fluid flow in partially saturated porous media including cohesive cracks are derived within the framework of the generalized Biot theory. The fluid flow within the crack is simulated using the Darcy law in which the permeability variation with porosity because of the cracking of the solid skeleton is accounted. The cohesive crack model is integrated into the numerical modeling by means of which the nonlinear fracture processes occurring along the fracture process zone are simulated. The solid phase displacement, the wetting phase pressure and the capillary pressure are taken as the primary variables of the three‐phase formulation. The other variables are incorporated into the model via the experimentally determined functions, which specify the relationship between the hydraulic properties of the fracturing porous medium, that is saturation, permeability and capillary pressure. The spatial discretization is implemented by employing the extended finite element method, and the time domain discretization is performed using the generalized Newmark scheme to derive the final system of fully coupled nonlinear equations of the hydro‐mechanical problem. It is illustrated that by allowing for the interaction between various processes, that is the solid skeleton deformation, the wetting and the non‐wetting pore fluid flow and the cohesive crack propagation, the effect of the presence of the geomechanical discontinuity can be completely captured. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fully coupled element‐free Galerkin model for hydro‐mechanical analysis of advancement of fluid‐driven fractures in porous media

Hydraulic fracturing (HF) of underground formations has widely been used in different fields of engineering. Despite the technological advances in techniques of in situ HF, the industry uses semi‐analytical tools to design HF treatment. This is due to the complex interaction among various mechanisms involved in this process, so that for thorough simulations of HF operations a fully coupled numerical model is required. In this study, using element‐free Galerkin (EFG) mesh‐less method, a new formulation for numerical modeling of hydraulic fracture propagation in porous media is developed. This numerical approach, which is based on the simultaneous solution of equilibrium and continuity equations, considers the hydro‐mechanical coupling between the crack and its surrounding porous medium. Therefore, the developed EFG model is capable of simulating fluid leak‐off and fluid lag phenomena. To create the discrete equation system, the Galerkin technique is applied, and the essential boundary conditions are imposed via penalty method. Then, the resultant constrained integral equations are discretized in space using EFG shape functions. For temporal discretization, a fully implicit scheme is employed. The final set of algebraic equations that forms a non‐linear equation system is solved using the direct iterative procedure. Modeling of cracks is performed on the basis of linear elastic fracture mechanics, and for this purpose, the so‐called diffraction method is employed. For verification of the model, a number of problems are solved. According to the obtained results, the developed EFG computer program can successfully be applied for simulating the complex process of hydraulic fracture propagation in porous media. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some numerical issues using element‐free Galerkin mesh‐less method for coupled hydro‐mechanical problems

A new formulation of the element‐free Galerkin (EFG) method is developed for solving coupled hydro‐mechanical problems. The numerical approach is based on solving the two governing partial differential equations of equilibrium and continuity of pore water simultaneously. Spatial variables in the weak form, i.e. displacement increment and pore water pressure increment, are discretized using the same EFG shape functions. An incremental constrained Galerkin weak form is used to create the discrete system equations and a fully implicit scheme is used for discretization in the time domain. Implementation of essential boundary conditions is based on a penalty method. Numerical stability of the developed formulation is examined in order to achieve appropriate accuracy of the EFG solution for coupled hydro‐mechanical problems. Examples are studied and compared with closed‐form or finite element method solutions to demonstrate the validity of the developed model and its capabilities. The results indicate that the EFG method is capable of handling coupled problems in saturated porous media and can predict well both the soil deformation and variation of pore water pressure over time. Some guidelines are proposed to guarantee the accuracy of the EFG solution for coupled hydro‐mechanical problems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

模拟三维裂纹问题的扩展有限元法

扩展有限元法是一种在常规有限元框架内求解强和弱不连续问题的新型数值方法,其计算网格与不连续面相互独立,因此模拟移动不连续面时无需对网格进行重新剖分。给出了模拟三维裂纹问题的扩展有限元法。在常规有限元位移模式中,基于单位分解的思想加进一个阶跃函数和二维渐近裂尖位移场,反映裂纹处位移的不连续性。用两个水平集函数表示裂纹。采用线性互补法求解裂纹面非线性接触条件,不需要迭代,提高了计算效率。采用两点位移外推法计算裂纹前缘应力强度因子。给出了3个三维弹性静力问题算例,其结果显示了所提方法能获得高精度的应力强度因子,并能有效地处理裂纹面间的接触问题,同时表明扩展有限元结合线性互补法求解不连续问题具有较好的前景。     

基于ABAQUS平台的水力裂缝扩展有限元模拟研究

随着扩展有限元理论的深入研究,利用扩展有限元方法模拟水力压裂具有了一定的可操作性。相比于常规有限元方法,XFEM方法具有计算结果精度高和计算量小的优点。但是,如何模拟射孔孔眼、如何模拟流体与岩石相互作用以及分析水力裂缝的扩展规律仍然是难题。以研究水力压裂裂缝扩展规律为目的,建立了岩石多孔介质应力平衡方程、流体渗流连续性方程和边界条件。通过有限元离散化方法对耦合方程矩阵进行处理。通过富集函数定义初始裂缝（射孔孔眼）,选择最大主应力及损伤变量D分别作为裂缝起裂和扩展判定准则,利用水平集方法模拟水力裂缝扩展过程。数值模拟结果显示：增加射孔方位角、压裂液排量和减小水平地应力差,起裂压力上升;黏度对起裂压力无明显影响。增加射孔方位角、压裂液排量、黏度和减小水平地应力差值有助于裂缝宽度的增加。增加水平地应力差值、压裂液排量和减小射孔方位角以及压裂液黏度有助于裂缝长度增加,反之亦然。基于ABAQUS的水力裂缝扩展有限元法可对不同井型和诸多储层物性参数及压裂施工参数进行分析,且裂缝形态逼真,裂缝面凹凸程度清晰,结果准确。此研究可作为一种简便有效研究水力压裂裂缝扩展规律的方法为油田水力压裂设计与施工提供参考与依据。     

储层流固耦合的数学模型和非线性有限元方程

根据饱和多孔介质固体骨架的平衡方程和多孔介质中流体的连续性方程,建立了储层流固耦合数学模型。模型中引入了Jaumann应力速率公式描述多孔介质固体骨架的大变形效应,并考虑了地应力、初始孔隙压力、初始流体密度和初始孔隙度对耦合模型的影响。基于与微分方程等价的加权余量公式,在空间域采用有限元离散,对时间域进行隐式差分格式离散,导出了以单元节点位移和单元节点孔隙压力为未知量的储层流固耦合的非线性有限元增量方程。该模型在石油工程中有广泛的应用,为储层流固耦合的数值模拟奠定了理论基础。     

Numerical modeling of multiphase fluid flow in deforming porous media: A comparison between two- and three-phase models for seismic analysis of earth and rockfill dams

In this paper, a fully coupled numerical model is presented for the finite element analysis of the deforming porous medium interacting with the flow of two immiscible compressible wetting and non-wetting pore fluids. The governing equations involving coupled fluid flow and deformation processes in unsaturated soils are derived within the framework of the generalized Biot theory. The displacements of the solid phase, the pressure of the wetting phase and the capillary pressure are taken as the primary unknowns of the present formulation. The other variables are incorporated into the model using the experimentally determined functions that define the relationship between the hydraulic properties of the porous medium, i.e. saturation, relative permeability and capillary pressure. It is worth mentioning that the imposition of various boundary conditions is feasible notwithstanding the choice of the primary variables. The modified Pastor–Zienkiewicz generalized constitutive model is introduced into the mathematical formulation to simulate the mechanical behavior of the unsaturated soil. The accuracy of the proposed mathematical model for analyzing coupled fluid flows in porous media is verified by the resolution of several numerical examples for which previous solutions are known. Finally, the performance of the computational algorithm in modeling of large-scale porous media problems including the large elasto-plastic deformations is demonstrated through the fully coupled analysis of the failure of two earth and rockfill dams. Furthermore, the three-phase model is compared to its simplified one which simulates the unsaturated porous medium as a two-phase one with static air phase. The paper illustrates the shortcomings of the commonly used simplified approach in the context of seismic analysis of two earth and rockfill dams. It is shown that accounting the pore air as an independent phase significantly influences the unsaturated soil behavior.     

Head-based isogeometric analysis of transient flow in unsaturated soils

An isogeometric analysis (IGA) is introduced to obtain a head-based solution to Richards equation for unsaturated flow in porous media. IGA uses Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) as shape functions, which provide a higher level of inter-element continuity in comparison with Lagrange shape functions. The semi-discrete nonlinear algebraic equations are solved using a combination of implicit backward-Euler time-integration and Newton-Raphson scheme. The time-step size is adaptively controlled based on the rate of changes in the pore pressure. The results from the proposed formulation are compared and verified against an analytical solution for one-dimensional transient unsaturated flow in a homogenous soil column. The proposed method is then applied to four more complex problems including two-dimensional unsaturated flow in a two-layered soil and a semi-circular furrow. The test cases in two-layered soil system involve sharp variations in the pressure gradient at the intersection of the two media, where the pore water pressure abruptly changes. It is shown that the proposed head-based IGA is able to properly simulate changes in pore pressure at the soils interface using fewer degrees of freedom and higher orders of approximation in comparison with the conventional finite element method.     

Embedded discontinuity approach for coupled hydromechanical analysis of fractured porous media

In this paper, a new continuum approach for the coupled hydromechanical analysis of fractured porous media is proposed. The methodology for describing the hydraulic characteristics invokes an enriched form of Darcy's law formulated in the presence of an embedded discontinuity. The constitutive relations governing the hydromechanical response are derived by averaging the fluid pressure gradient and the discontinuous displacement fields over a selected referential volume of the material, subject to some physical constraints. The framework incorporates an internal length scale which is explicitly embedded in the definition of gradient operators. The respective field equations are derived following the general form of balance equations in interacting continua. The conventional finite element method is then employed for the spatial discretization, and the generalized Newmark scheme is used for the temporal discretization. The proposed methodology is verified by some numerical examples dealing with a steady-state flow through fractured media as well as a time-dependent consolidation in the presence of a discontinuity.     

Coupled heat and mass transfer in unsaturated soil—a potential-based solution

An analysis of coupled heat and moisture movement in unsaturated soil in terms of the fundamental potentials for flow is examined. The approach adopted is based on the assumption that the total potential for liquid flow consists of two components, the elevation and the capillary potential. The fundamental potentials employed in the work are, therefore, temperature and capillary potential. The full theoretical formulation of the problem is presented, together with full details of the solution algorithm employed. Spatial discretization is achieved via the use of the finite element method, with the time-varying behaviour described by a finite difference technique. Soil parameter variations as functions of both temperature and moisture content are included in a one-dimensional approach. The work is applied to a practical engineering problem, namely heat and mass transfer in the upper layers of a soil stratum. This problem is of importance to the utilities, since many services are buried in this zone. Material parameters obtained from an associated programme of experimental work are employed. Moisture content and temperature profiles indicating the extent and rate of penetration of drying and heating fronts are produced.     

Propagation of Rayleigh waves in unsaturated porothermoelastic media

Based on the frame of elastic theory for unsaturated porous medium, considering the influence of thermal effect, the propagation characteristics of Rayleigh wave in unsaturated porous media are studied. Firstly, the thermoelastic wave equations for three-phase porous media are established, in which the mass balance equations, generalized Darcy law, momentum balance equations, and generalized non-Fourier heat conduction law are taken into account. Secondly, through theoretical derivation, the dispersion equation of Rayleigh wave for unsaturated porothermoelastic media is given by introducing the potential functions. Finally, the variations of the phase velocity of Rayleigh wave are analyzed with numerical examples. The results show that the thermal conductivity has little effect on the phase velocity of Rayleigh wave. The phase velocity of Rayleigh wave increase with increasing of the thermal expansion coefficient and media temperature.     

A fracture mapping and extended finite element scheme for coupled deformation and fluid flow in fractured porous media

This paper presents a fracture mapping (FM) approach combined with the extended finite element method (XFEM) to simulate coupled deformation and fluid flow in fractured porous media. Specifically, the method accurately represents the impact of discrete fractures on flow and deformation, although the individual fractures are not part of the finite element mesh. A key feature of FM‐XFEM is its ability to model discontinuities in the domain independently of the computational mesh. The proposed FM approach is a continuum‐based approach that is used to model the flow interaction between the porous matrix and existing fractures via a transfer function. Fracture geometry is defined using the level set method. Therefore, in contrast to the discrete fracture flow model, the fracture representation is not meshed along with the computational domain. Consequently, the method is able to determine the influence of fractures on fluid flow within a fractured domain without the complexity of meshing the fractures within the domain. The XFEM component of the scheme addresses the discontinuous displacement field within elements that are intersected by existing fractures. In XFEM, enrichment functions are added to the standard finite element approximation to adequately resolve discontinuous fields within the simulation domain. Numerical tests illustrate the ability of the method to adequately describe the displacement and fluid pressure fields within a fractured domain at significantly less computational expense than explicitly resolving the fracture within the finite element mesh. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

单层非饱和多孔介质一维瞬态响应半解析解

基于Zienkiewicz提出的非饱和多孔介质波动理论,考虑两相流体和固体颗粒的压缩性以及惯性、黏滞和机械耦合作用,采用半解析的方法获得了一类典型边界条件下单层非饱和多孔介质一维瞬态响应解。首先推导出无量纲化后以位移表示的控制方程,并将其写成矩阵形式;然后,将边界条件齐次化,求解控制方程所对应的特征值问题,得到了满足齐次边界条件的特征值和相对应的特征函数。根据变异系数法并利用特征函数的正交性,得到了一系列仅黏滞耦合的关于时间的二阶常微分方程及相应的初始条件。在此基础上,运用精细时程积分法给出了常微分方程组的数值解。最后,通过若干算例验证了结果的正确性并探讨了单层非饱和多孔介质一维瞬态动力响应的特点。该方法可推广应用于其他典型的边界条件。     

正交各向异性岩体裂纹扩展的扩展有限元方法研究

石油开采和非常规天然气开采等领域经常遇到页岩、砂岩等沉积岩,这类岩石材料往往具有正交各向异性特征。采用扩展有限元方法研究了正交各向异性岩体裂纹扩展问题,并基于Matlab平台编写了数值计算程序Betaxfem2D。将由复变函数法得到的裂纹尖端渐进位移场作为裂尖位移增强函数,用相互作用积分法计算混合模式应力强度因子,采用修改后的最大周向拉应力扩展准则确定裂纹扩展方向。与传统有限元方法的对比表明,扩展有限元方法达到相同计算精度需要的自由度少,节省计算机时。分别采用扩展有限元程序和传统有限元程序模拟了岩石试件4点弯曲试验,二者所得结果一致。数值试验表明：随着正交材料坐标系与空间坐标系夹角α的增大,裂纹扩展方向角? 按照周期为? 的近似正弦函数的规律变化;保持剪切模量和泊松比不变时,正弦函数的值域随着弹性模量比值E1 /E2的减小而缩小,但相位基本保持不变;研究沉积岩断裂力学问题时,岩石的正交各向异性特征不可忽略。     

复杂水力路径下非饱和流动的数值分析

多孔介质中的流动问题,与孔隙介质的特性,含水量状态以及含水量的变化历史密切相关。基于毛细循环滞回理论模型,考虑含水量变化历史对土水特征关系的影响,在开发的U-DYSAC2有限元程序中进行了相应的数值实施。在试验给定的初边值条件下进行了非饱和渗流模拟分析,并将模拟结果与实测数据比较,表明在压力边界条件反复变化下,考虑滞回效应能获得更接近实测的结果,证实该模型在模拟各种循环变化条件下非饱和土渗流初边值问题的适用性与必要性。对入渗重分布反复变化条件下非饱和土柱流动的数值模拟表明,考虑滞回与不考虑滞回条件下,含水量、孔隙水压力和湿峰的迁移的预测在入渗后的重分布过程差异较大。考虑滞回效应时,土柱上部的脱湿速率、下部的吸湿速率比不考虑滞回时要低。从而证实了非饱和多孔介质中的土水状态依赖于含水量变化,而且强烈依赖于土体的水力路径变化。因此,循环边界条件变化下,毛细滞回效应在非饱和渗流模拟中的影响显著,必须加以考虑。     

Theoretical and numerical study of the steady‐state flow through finite fractured porous media

This paper investigates the two‐dimensional flow problem through an anisotropic porous medium containing several intersecting curved fractures. First, the governing equations of steady‐state fluid flow in a fractured porous body are summarized. The flow follows Darcy's law in matrix and Poiseuille's law in fractures. An infinite transversal permeability is considered for the fractures. A multi‐region boundary element method is used to derive a general pressure solution as a function of discharge through the fractures and the pressure and the normal flux on the domain boundary. The obtained solution fully accounts for the interaction and the intersection between fractures. A numerical procedure based on collocation method is presented to compute the unknowns on the boundaries and on the fractures. The numerical solution is validated by comparing with finite element solution or the results obtained for an infinite matrix. Pressure fields in the matrix are illustrated for domains containing several interconnected fractures, and mass balance at the intersection points is also checked. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FV-MHMM method for reservoir modeling

The present paper proposes a new family of multiscale finite volume methods. These methods usually deal with a dual mesh resolution, where the pressure field is solved on a coarse mesh, while the saturation fields, which may have discontinuities, are solved on a finer reservoir grid, on which petrophysical heterogeneities are defined. Unfortunately, the efficiency of dual mesh methods is strongly related to the definition of up-gridding and down-gridding steps, allowing defining accurately pressure and saturation fields on both fine and coarse meshes and the ability of the approach to be parallelized. In the new dual mesh formulation we developed, the pressure is solved on a coarse grid using a new hybrid formulation of the parabolic problem. This type of multiscale method for pressure equation called multiscale hybrid-mixed method (MHMM) has been recently proposed for finite elements and mixed-finite element approach (Harder et al. 2013). We extend here the MH-mixed method to a finite volume discretization, in order to deal with large multiphase reservoir models. The pressure solution is obtained by solving a hybrid form of the pressure problem on the coarse mesh, for which unknowns are fluxes defined on the coarse mesh faces. Basis flux functions are defined through the resolution of a local finite volume problem, which accounts for local heterogeneity, whereas pressure continuity between cells is weakly imposed through flux basis functions, regarded as Lagrange multipliers. Such an approach is conservative both on the coarse and local scales and can be easily parallelized, which is an advantage compared to other existing finite volume multiscale approaches. It has also a high flexibility to refine the coarse discretization just by refinement of the lagrange multiplier space defined on the coarse faces without changing nor the coarse nor the fine meshes. This refinement can also be done adaptively w.r.t. a posteriori error estimators. The method is applied to single phase (well-testing) and multiphase flow in heterogeneous porous media.     

Modeling soil desiccation cracking by analytical and numerical approaches

An energy approach is proposed as a complement to the stress approach commonly considered for investigating soil desiccation cracking. The elastic strain energies before and after crack initiation are estimated by both numerical and analytical solutions. The energy released by cracking is then compared with the fracture energy to discuss crack initiation conditions. This leads to combined energy and stress conditions for crack initiation following Leguillon's theory. An approximate analytical solution is derived from a variational formulation of the porous elastic body equations. A cohesive zone model and finite element code are used to simulate crack propagation in an unsaturated porous body. This analysis shows that the energy criterion is reached before the stress criterion, and this can explain unstable crack propagation at the beginning. The approximate analytical solution allows predicting correctly the crack depth and opening in its initiation stage.