Postdoc: Computational Simulation of Hydrofracturing

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9503981 Ingraffea The purpose of this project is to contribute to the development of a simulator for predicting initiation and near-wellbore propagation from cased, perforated, deviated wellbores. This simulator will function on both the IBM SP2 and on a distributed-workstation parallel computing environment, and will use state-of-the-art computational and representational methods and correctly propagate fluid-coupled fractures of arbitrary geometries. Hydraulic fracturing, widely used for stimulating oil and gas production is often unsuccessful for deviated (non-vertical) wellbores. However, the economical and environmental advantages of drilling inclined wellbores are overwhelming: thus, it is imperative that the stimulation techniques be improved. This includes detailed simulations of the hydrofracturing process. With an efficient simulator, the causes of hydrofracturing treatment failures can be analyzed, and new approaches can be investigated. The computational resources for modeling the geometrical and physical complexities presented by deviated wellbores have not been readily available to the field engineer, so there has been little motivation to create such a simulator. This situation is rapidly changing, and now a useful simulator must be able to model the multiple, non-planar, propagating cracks which interact and possibly intersect, as well as the highly non-linear coupling between the fluid flow in the fracture and the elastic response of the fractured rock. Current "three-dimensional" fracturing simulators are severely restricted in these areas.