Abstract
Reservoir simulation is currently used as the primary technique to simulate the behavior of almost all types of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Although several techniques have been developed to simulate the behavior of hydraulic fractures in reservoir simulators, a lack of accurate modeling of fracture geometry and fracture-fluid leakoff, as well as some other effects on hydraulic fractures (e.g., non-Darcy flow, dynamic fracture-conductivity behavior, stress-permeability dependence), is commonly observed in commercial-reservoir simulators.
A different approach is presented in this paper to fill the gap between reservoir simulators and hydraulic fracture simulators. Software capabilities have been developed to import propped-fracture geometry, proppant-area concentration, and fracture-fluid leakoff from commercial, grid-based fracture simulators, into a reservoir simulator with capabilities to model multiphase, non-Darcy flow inside the fracture. This includes the effects of long-term dynamic conductivity, stress-permeability dependence, and condensates banking, etc. This functionality permits better modeling of fracture-flow behavior and gives better insight into the cleanup and productivity of fractured wells, which will in-turn allow the user to design better fractures.
