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Software development for reservoir engineering

The following software for reservoir engineering is developed by the Geowatt team:

FRAChem

The FRAChem program is a Thermo-Hydraulic and Chemical coupled code that has been designed in order to forecast the chemical evolution of the Soultz-sous-Forêts system. It results from the combination of two existing codes; FRACTure and CHEMTOUGH 2. FRAChem code determines the thermal and hydraulic processes and simulates the reactive transport. The Pitzer formalism has also been implemented in FRAChem code to calculate the activity coefficients of selected chemical species; then, the precipitation/dissolution reactions of some minerals, i.e carbonates, quartz, amorphous silica, pyrite and some aluminosilicates can be estimated. At last, a supplementary module allows the determination of porosity and permeability variations linked to chemical processes occurring in the reservoir.

HEX-S

The program package HEX-S has been developed to calculate the stimulation processes in a fractured reservoir during a massive injection into a borehole. This code is based on a Hydro-Mechanical coupling formulation. It takes into account the aperture change of each fracture in the model due to the corresponding overpressure resulting from the injection. The propagation of the overpressure in the reservoir as well as the development of the highly anisotropic reservoir permeability as a result of the fracture apertures is calculated as a time-dependent process. Hence the reaction of the reservoir permeability due to an arbitrary injection rate history can be calculated.

 

HEX-B

HEX-B is a borehole processes simulator. The numerical borehole tool HEX-B has been developed for simulations of pressure and temperature profiles in boreholes during injections. In HEX-B, borehole diameter variations, defined fluid loss rates at exit points, the borehole trajectory and thermal properties of the rock mass along the borehole are all accounted for. The calculation starts with an initial wellhead pressure, with initial profiles for NaCl-molality in the borehole and for the temperature in the rock mass. Knowing the injection rates, the temperature of the injected fluid, its salinity and additionally the wellhead pressure, the pressure profile in the borehole is calculated, with the injectivity index II as a resulting parameter. This is one of two possible modes of HEX-B when the wellhead pressure is known after an injection. A second operational mode is provided to allow the wellhead pressure and the development of the pressure profile prior to an injection test to be calculated by predefining an assumed value for the injectivity index.

ORION

The ORION program is an automated mesh generator and a 3D-element splitter. It therefore allows the automation of repetitive tasks that could not be performed by hand. The ORION splitter has been developed in order to make possible the integration of tunnel geometries and such complex features into geological block models. It can from hexahedra and prisms elements split them into hexahedra, prisms, pyramids or tetrahedral 3D-elements. Thanks to its great capabilities, the geology and geometry of models created can thereby remarkably fit to observed reality.

 

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