| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/T18042/01 |
| Title: |
Rigorous upscaling of flow properties in fractured media |
| Principal Investigator: |
Blunt, Professor MJ |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Department of Earth Sciences |
| Organisation: |
Imperial College London |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 September 2004 |
Ends: |
31 August 2007 |
Value (£): |
180,523
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Multiphase Flow |
Oil & Gas Extraction |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Approximately one half of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are contained in fractured reservoirs, with large deposits in the North Sea and the Middle East. However, typically 80 - 95% of the oil in place is left underground, since most of the oil is retained in relatively low permeability rock, while the flow is confied to the fractures. In nuclear waste containment, one key issue in considering long-term underground storage is how to predict the migration of radioactive species were they to escape. In both these cases there is flow of multiple fluid phases in fractured rock: oil, water and gas in oil reservoirs; and unsaturated flows in repositories. There is huge uncertainty associated with designing improved oil recovery schemes in fractured reservoirs and nuclear waste storage for two principal reasons: first the geological description of the fracture network is highly uncertain; and second the basic physical processes and their macroscopic description, particularly when they involve multiphase flow, are still not well established. This proposal will focus on the second of these issues.We will use analytical methods to derive expressions for how fluids move in simple fracture geometries for a variety of physical situations commonly encountered in fractured systems. These expressions will be validated against direct numerical simulation and available experimental data.The analytical expressions that describe fluid transport on the centimetre to metre scale will then be used in upscaled transport equations to describe flow at the field scale (on length scales of kilometers and time scales of decades to thousands of years). Where possible, analytical expressions will be derived and compared against direct numerical simulation.The end result will be a methodology to use small-scale measurements to describe fluid flow at large scales (upscaling) allowing complex multiphase flow processes in fractured reservoirs to be modelled with confidence using mathematically consistent and physically-motivated transport equations.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.imperial.ac.uk |