Coupling Reactive Transport with Discrete Fracture Modeling for Subsurface Energy Applications
Open Access
Author:
Kearns, Mychal
Area of Honors:
Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Anne Menefee, Thesis Supervisor Eugene C Morgan, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Reactive Transport Mineral Precipitation Discrete Fracture Network Fluid-Rock Interaction
Abstract:
Mineral precipitation can significantly impact the permeability of fractures within geologic reservoirs crucial for carbon sequestration, geothermal energy, and oil/gas production. This thesis aims to (1) provide a comparative overview of existing experimental insights and simulation techniques for modeling such reactive transport processes in fractured geologic media, and (2) develop discrete fracture network (DFN) models that are coupled to reactive transport to enable simulating how fracture permeability changes during mineral precipitation events, In the first objective, I summarize our current understanding of mineral precipitation in fractures based on recent experimental results and demonstrate the utility of DFN models for simulating reactive transport involving mineral precipitation, including simulations tied to lab or field data. In the second, a DFN model coupled to the reactive transport code PFLOTRAN is developed to enable the simulation of precipitation and permeability within a physically and chemically simplified DFN consisting of two minerals, where gypsum dissolves and calcite precipitates. This thesis lays important groundwork for future research to better understand the complicated roles of mineral precipitation on fracture flow in a host of subsurface energy applications.
