Multiscale Modeling of Coupled Physical Processes in Tight Rocks - Livestream

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) reservoirs are known to be multiscale in nature, with pores ranging from ~2 nm up to millimeters in propped hydraulic fractures. This wide pore-size distribution poses a challenge because the continuum fluid assumptions are not applicable below ~10 nm. Although molecular simulations are appropriate at the nanoscale, they are computationally expensive and are limited in length and time scales. This talk will discuss the application of the heterogeneous multiscale method to upscale the molecular simulations of excess adsorption in nanopores. I will show how we iteratively couple pEDFM with XFEM to model hydraulic fracture propagation and flow in naturally fractured reservoirs. Our ongoing work on the coupling of multiscale XFEM with multiscale pEDFM will be discussed. This presentation will end with a discussion of the experimental setup to validate multiscale modeling results using 3D-printed cores with designed multiscale fractures.

Speaker: Olufemi Olorode, Louisiana State University