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Fractures and fracture networks play an important role in fluid flow and transport properties of oil and gas reservoirs. Accurate estimation of geometrical characteristics of fracture networks and their hydraulic properties are two key research directions in the fields of fluids flow in fractured porous media. Recent works focusing on the geometrical, fractal and hydraulic properties of fractured reservoirs are reviewed and summarized in this mini-review. The effects of several important parameters that significantly influences hydraulic properties are specifically discussed and analyzed, including fracture length distribution, aperture distribution, boundary stress and anisotropy. The methods for predicting fractal dimension of fractures and models for fracture networks and fractured porous media based on fractal-based approaches are addressed. Some comments and suggestions are also given on the future research directions and fractal fracture networks as well as fractured porous media.


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Geometrical, fractal and hydraulic properties of fractured reservoirs: A mini-review

Show Author's information Wei Wei( )Yuxuan Xia
Hubei Subsurface Multi-scale Imaging Key Laboratory, Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China

Abstract

Fractures and fracture networks play an important role in fluid flow and transport properties of oil and gas reservoirs. Accurate estimation of geometrical characteristics of fracture networks and their hydraulic properties are two key research directions in the fields of fluids flow in fractured porous media. Recent works focusing on the geometrical, fractal and hydraulic properties of fractured reservoirs are reviewed and summarized in this mini-review. The effects of several important parameters that significantly influences hydraulic properties are specifically discussed and analyzed, including fracture length distribution, aperture distribution, boundary stress and anisotropy. The methods for predicting fractal dimension of fractures and models for fracture networks and fractured porous media based on fractal-based approaches are addressed. Some comments and suggestions are also given on the future research directions and fractal fracture networks as well as fractured porous media.

Keywords: Fracture, fractal, hydraulic properties, permeability.

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Publication history

Received: 12 March 2017
Revised: 15 April 2017
Accepted: 18 April 2017
Published: 25 June 2017
Issue date: June 2017

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© The Author(s) 2017

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41572116), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan) (No. CUG160602).

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Published with open access at Ausasia Science and Technology Press on behalf of the Division of Porous Flow, Hubei Province Society of Rock Mechanics and Engineering.

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