Work

Macroscopic signatures of pore boundary motion due to intermittent fluid injection in porous medium

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: SUMMARY Intermittent fluid injection aims at inferring and steering hydraulic transmissivity and has become an integral part of reservoir stimulation techniques. Modelling the poroelastic response of such pumping operations poses new challenges with respect to the hydromechanical coupling. This is because when a fluid pressure perturbation is introduced in the pore space of a deformable porous rock, it will induce a stress perturbation in the solid phase and this is accompanied by pore boundary motion. Within the limits of quasi-static linear poroelasticity, we analyse the macroscopic signatures of pore boundary motion during injection, that is, when the rock frame is mechanically loaded, and after injection stop, that is, when pore boundaries tend to relax back into equilibrium. We show that there is a pumping sequence that allows to harness the energy associated with pore boundary motion accumulated during the frame-loading cycle. Our results foster the need to distinguish how pressure diffusion in poroelastic solids proceeds: either fluid transport is of compressible or incompressible nature and the respective diffusion constant depends on undrained or drained poroelastic moduli.

Source: Geophysical Journal International

DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaf258

Authors: T M Müller, P N Sahay

Institutions: China University of Petroleum, East China, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada

Language: English

Topic: Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,416

Funders: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California