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Study on the seismic damage and dynamic support of roadway surrounding rock based on reconstructive transverse and longitudinal waves
The magnitude and frequency of induced seismicity increase as mining excavation reaches greater depth, leading to the increasingly severe damage to roadways caused by high-energy seismic waves. To comprehensively simulate the damage caused by dynamic loads, a synchrosqueezing transform and empirical mode decomposition method was developed, which effectively decomposed raw seismic wave signals into transverse and longitudinal components. This novel method produced more accurate results in terms of velocity, displacement, rock yielding patterns, and reflecting theoretically orthogonal oscillating directions of transverse and longitudinal waves compared to using raw mixed waves at the seismic source. Under the disturbance of transverse and longitudinal waves, the vertical displacement was much higher than horizontal displacement at the top position of the roadway, while the horizontal displacement was greater at the sidewalls. The particle vibration velocity, displacement and yielding zone of the surrounding rock of roadway were proportional to the energy level of seismic, while inversely proportional to the source-roadway distance. The proportion of damage attributed to transverse waves increased with the energy level, ranging from 75.8% to 85.8%. Eventually, a roadway dynamic support design was optimized based on the proposed seismic wave processing and modeling methodology. The methodology offers guidance for roadway dynamic support design, with the goal of averting excessive or insufficient support strength.Document Type: Original articleCited as: He, S., Shen, F., Chen, T., Mitri, H., Ren, T., Song, D. Study on the seismic damage and dynamic support of roadway surrounding rock based on reconstructive transverse and longitudinal waves. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 9(3): 156-171. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.09.0
Energy storage salt cavern construction and evaluation technology
With the demand for peak-shaving of renewable energy and the approach of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, salt caverns are expected to play a more effective role in oil and gas storage, compressed air energy storage, large-scale hydrogen storage, and temporary carbon dioxide storage. In order to effectively utilize the underground space of salt mines on a sound scientific basis, the construction of salt caverns for energy storage should implement the maximum utilization of salt layers, improve the cavern construction efficiency, shorten the construction period, and ensure cavern safety. In this work, built upon design experience and on-site practice in salt cavern gas storage, the four pivotal construction stages-conceptual design, solution mining simulation, tightness assessment, and stability evaluation-have been thoroughly enhanced, strengthening the technical framework for salt cavern energy storage.Document Type: PerspectiveCited as: Wan, J., Meng, T., Li, J., Liu, W. Energy storage salt cavern construction and evaluation technology. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 9(3): 141-145. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.09.0
Explicit original gas in place determination of naturally fractured reservoirs in gas well rate decline analysis
Naturally fractured gas reservoirs have contributed significantly to global gas reserves and production. The classical gas-well decline analysis relies largely on Arps’ empirical decline models, or modern production decline analysis associating with pseudo-variables. The explicit original gas in place determination methodology is extended from homogeneous reservoir to naturally fractured reservoir under constant or variable bottom-hole pressure conditions in gas-well rate decline analysis. Then, the relationship between gas flow rate and average reservoir pseudo-pressure in the boundary-dominated flow period is re-derived. This formula is in the same format with the equation for homogeneous reservoir by due to the introduction of a new productivity index parameter that captures the inter-porosity flow between fracture and matrix in the natural fractured reservoir. The proposed step-by-step procedures are applied here, which enable the estimation of decline exponent and the explicit and straightforward determination of the original gas in place without any iterative calculations. Four simulated cases prove that our methodology can be successfully used in heterogeneous naturally fractured reservoirs with irregular boundary under constant or variable bottom-hole pressure conditions.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Wang, Y., Wang, J., Zhao, W., Ji, P., Cheng, S., Yu, H. Explicit original gas in place determination of naturally fractured reservoirs in gas well rate decline analysis. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 9(2): 117-124. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.08.0
Fracturing and thermal extraction optimization methods in enhanced geothermal systems
Fracture networks, fluid flow and heat extraction within fractures constitute pivotal aspects of enhanced geothermal system advancement. Conventional hydraulic fracturing in dry hot rock reservoirs typically requires high breakdown pressure and only produces a single major fracture morphology. Thus, it is imperative to explore better fracturing methods and consider more reasonable coupling mechanisms to improve the prediction efficiency. Cyclic fracturing using liquid nitrogen instead of water can generate more complex fracture networks and improve the fracturing performance. The simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer processes in the fracture network is crucial for an enhanced geothermal system, which requires a more comprehensive coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical model for matching, especially the characterization of coupling mechanism between the chemical and mechanical field. Based on the results of field engineering, laboratory experiments and numerical simulation, the optimum engineering scheme can be obtained by a multi-objective optimization and decision-making method. Furthermore, combining it with the deep-learning-based proxy model to achieve dynamic optimization with time is a meaningful future research direction.Document Type: PerspectiveCited as: Yang, R., Wang, Y., Song, G., Shi, Y. Fracturing and thermal extraction optimization methods in enhanced geothermal systems. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 9(2): 136-140. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.08.0
Effects of impurity gases on interfaces of the hydrogen-water-decane three-phase system: A square gradient theory investigation
The effects of impurity gases on interfacial characteristics of hydrogen-water-oil three-phase systems are critical to underground H2 storage in depleted oil fields but have not been investigated yet. The square gradient theory calculations with Perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory equation of state are carried out to understand the effects of impurity gases (N2, CH4, and CO2) on interfaces of the H2-H2O-n-decane three-phase system under reservoir conditions. Our results obtained from the four-component three-phase systems are compared to the corresponding system without impurity gases. It is found that the all three interfaces (H2-H2O, H2O-C10H22, and H2-C10H22) are greatly influenced by impurity gases. The impurity gases accumulate in all three interfacial regions and have positive surface excesses, which leads to smaller interfacial tensions. The reduction of interfacial tensions depends on the type of impurity gas following this order: CO2 ≥ CH4 > N2. In general, the adsorption of impurity gases weakens the adsorption of other species. However, the adsorption of decane in the H2-H2O interface can be enhanced by impurity gases, which also contributes to the decrease of interfacial tensions. Moreover, the spreading coefficients are mostly negative over the studied temperature and pressure conditions indicating the existence of three-phase contact in the N2/CH4/CO2-hydrogen-water-oil three-phase systems.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Yang, Y., Wan, J., Li, J., Zhu, W., Zhao, G., Shang, X. Effects of impurity gases on interfaces of the hydrogen-water-decane three-phase system: A square gradient theory investigation. Capillarity, 2023, 9(1): 9-24. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2023.10.0
Impact of CO2 solubility on design of single well tracer tests to evaluate residual saturation during carbon capture and storage
Single-well tracer technique have been well applied in many petroleum industry and environmental applications. However, these tests have not been well developed for CO2 geological storage purposes to evaluate residual CO2 saturation during the appraisal phase of site investigation, due to the challenges occurring from the complex phase behaviour. In this study, two single-well tracer tests are numerically modelled to quantify the residual gas saturation. Our study addresses the design of an alternative single well tracer test sequence, which involved a single pass of the tracer saturated water over the residually trapped zone, thereby reducing the amount of CO2 dissolution into the tracer solution. A one-dimensional numerical modelling of the tracer propagation and partitioning with homogenous properties was used for the calculations of the difference in tracer breakthrough times during water withdrawal from the tests. Model sensitivity variations were applied to analyse the impact of reservoir and treatment design parameters on the residual gas saturation. The residual gas saturations calculated reflect the input values, including the effect of hysteresis, to within 10% accuracy. It was found that changing the CO2 saturated water volume injected after CO2 made the CO2 front to travel to different distances from the well, and thus the tracer had different size of residually trapped zones to travel through when it is back produced and encounters different residual gas saturations, and therefore affected the residual gas saturation calculations. The modelling also shows that optimal injection of CO2-saturated water to prevent the dissolution of the residually trapped CO2 and establish the residually trapped zone was challenging to achieve, and therefore using the fluid withdrawal method was more robust to establish the residually trapped zone. This is because of the dependency of solubility on pressure. The numerical models may be used to design, optimise, and interpret the field tests.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Awag, M., Mackay, E., Ghanbari, S. Impact of CO2 solubility on design of single well tracer tests to evaluate residual saturation during carbon capture and storage. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2024, 11(1): 6-19. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2024.01.0
Modeling the elastic characteristics of overpressure due to thermal maturation in organic shales
Modeling the overpressure of organic shales caused by thermal maturation and its elastic responses is crucial for geophysical characterization of source rocks and unconventional shale reservoirs. Thermal maturation involves the generation of excess fluid contents (oil and gas) and can cause the overpressure if an organic shale preserves the produced fluids partly or wholly. The solid organic matter (e.g., kerogen or solid bitumen) with the potential of generating hydrocarbon presents two types of morphology in organic shales: scattered patches as pore-fillings and continuous network as load-bearings. According to the kerogen morphology, two bulk volume models are devised to simulate the elasticity of organic shales using respective rock-physics modeling schemes. The rock physics modeling combined with the density and compressibility of pore-fillings are demonstrated to effectively capture the excess pore pressure characteristics due to thermal maturation in organic shales. The basic principle of solving the overpressure is that the pore space volume equals the total volume of all components within the pores before and after the maturation. According to the modeling results, the elastic characteristics of overpressure due to thermal maturation reveal a decrease in velocity and a slight decrease in density. Besides, for an organic shale with a relatively rigid framework, it tends to yield higher overpressure than a shale with a relatively compliant framework. With proper calibration, the modeling strategy shows its potential in quantitatively interpreting the well-log data of organic shale formation within the thermal maturation window.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Qin, X., Zhao, L., Zhu, J., Han, D. Modeling the elastic characteristics of overpressure due to thermal maturation in organic shales. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 10(3): 174-188. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.12.0
Study on the mechanism of surfactant flooding: Effect of betaine structure
In order to elucidate the oil displacement mechanism of micro-emulsions formed by different betaines at pore throats, this study selected three betaine surfactants with different hydrophobic branched chains for a microscopic visualization oil displacement experiment. The interfacial tension, dilational modulus, interactions of oil droplets, and apparent viscosity of the emulsions were measured. Besides, the microscopic oil displacement mechanism and oil displacement effects of different betaines in homogeneous and heterogeneous models were investigated. The results revealed the beneficial interfacial activity and viscosity enhancement effects of the three betaine solutions. With the increase in the branched degree of betaines, the strength of interfacial films and the viscosity enhancement effect decreases. In the homogeneous model, betaine solutions emulsify crude oil into droplets with strong interfacial films. The in-situ plugging effect improves oil recovery and the sweep efficiency in the pore throats, and the remaining oil is mainly in the form of droplets. As the branched degree increases, the strength of the interfacial films and the oil recovery decline. In the heterogeneous model, the plugging effect enhances the pore structure heterogeneity. The three betaine solutions can increase the sweep efficiency but the displacement solutions only migrate along the dominant pathway within the sweep range. As a result, a large amount of isolated cluster residual oil remains, resulting in similar oil recovery efficiency for betaine flooding to that of water flooding in the heterogeneous model.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Lv, W., Zhou, Z., Zhang, Q., Zhang, X., Zhang, L. Study on the mechanism of surfactant flooding: Effect of betaine structure. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 10(3): 146-158. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.12.0
Numerical well test model of oil-water two-phase flow in fractured and vuggy carbonate reservoir
Fractured and vuggy carbonate reservoirs present a complex storage space with irregularly distributed fractures and caves. Furthermore, these reservoirs typically feature the presence of a substantial bottom aquifer, further complicating the fluid flow dynamics. At present, most well test models for this reservoir are based on discrete media primarily address single-phase flow scenarios, typically considering caves as equipotential bodies. This approach cannot accurately represent the complexities of such reservoirs. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical well test model for two-phase oil-water flow within fractured and vuggy carbonate reservoirs is introduced. Randomly generated natural fractures are embedded within the reservoir, and the Hagen-Poiseuille law is utilized to describe fluid flow within cave spaces, effectively coupling flow interactions across fractures, caves and the porous rock matrix. The computational domain is discretized by a perpendicular bisection grid, and the finite volume method is used to solve the model, allowing for the calculation of the pressure and saturation fields at each time step. Subsequently, well test type curves are constructed and analyzed, flow regimes are segmented, and sensitivity analysis of model parameters is conducted. The pressure buildup data from well A are interpreted, and the results demonstrate a remarkable agreement between the well test curve and actual data, confirming the capability of the model to capture reservoir characteristics and complex fluid flow phenomena. The findings lay the foundation for the development of numerical well test models tailored to fractured and vuggy carbonate reservoirs.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Xu, G., Yin, H., Zhang, D., Fu, J., Xing, C. Numerical well test model of oil-water two-phase flow in fractured and vuggy carbonate reservoir. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 10(2): 91-103. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.11.0
The impact of background water flow on the early migration of a CO2 plume in a tilted aquifer during the post-injection period
The study presents a numerical modelling analysis on CO2 plume migration in a dipping storage aquifer with background flux, which incorporates residual and dissolution trapping of CO2. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the effect of the background flow velocity on the CO2 plume migration during the early post-injection period. Different velocities of groundwater flow from low to high were considered in the aquifer model. The distribution, migration distance and velocity of the injected CO2 plume as well as the remaining mobile CO2 plume extent are estimated to determine how fast and far the plume propagates with time. Comparison of the results indicate that increasing the background flux velocity causes the plume to migrate longer distances up-dip, while it reduces the height distribution of the plume with time. This reduces the volume of mobile CO2 in the storage aquifer at larger velocities of background flux, hence decreasing the leakage risk of CO2 to the surface. In addition, the CO2 plume decelerates immediately after cessation of injection as its bottom rises vertically and the buoyancy force reduces as the thickness of the plume reduces. However, the plume then accelerates during the initial period of its subsequent lateral migration, as the plume becomes extended, and the buoyancy forces increases somewhat. The degree of lateral extension increases with increasing background water flow velocity, with the leading tip of the plume migrating faster than the trailing edge, until residual and dissolution trapping sufficiently reduce the volume of free phase CO2 that its migration is arrested.Document Type: Original articleCited as: Awag, M., Mackay, E., Ghanbari, A. The impact of background water flow on the early migration of a CO2 plume in a tilted aquifer during the post-injection period. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 9(2): 125-135. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.08.0