Print Email Facebook Twitter Steady-State Flow Through a Subsurface Reservoir with a Displaced Fault and its Poro-elastic Effects on Fault Stresses Title Steady-State Flow Through a Subsurface Reservoir with a Displaced Fault and its Poro-elastic Effects on Fault Stresses Author Cornelissen, P. (TU Delft Reservoir Engineering) Jansen, J.D. (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences) Faculty Civil Engineering & Geosciences Date 2023 Abstract We consider steady-state single-phase confined flow through a subsurface porous layer containing a displaced, fully conductive fault causing a sudden jump in the flow path, and we employ (semi-)analytical techniques to compute the corresponding pressures and fault stresses. In particular, we obtain a new solution for the pressure field with the aid of conformal mapping and a Schwarz–Christoffel transformation. Moreover, we use an existing technique to compute the poro-elastic stress field with the aid of inclusion theory. The additional resistance to fluid flow provided by a displaced fault, relative to the resistance in a layer without a fault, is a function of dip angle, fault throw divided by reservoir height, and reservoir width divided by reservoir height. Fluid flow has a larger effect on fault stresses in case of injection than in case of depletion, where injection with up-dip flow results in increased zones of fault slip near the bottom of the reservoir. Opposedly, injection with down-dip flow results in increased slip near the top of the reservoir. An order-of-magnitude estimate of the effect of steady-state flow across displaced faults in the Groningen natural gas reservoir shows that the effect on fault stresses is probably negligible. A similar estimate of the effect in low-enthalpy geothermal doublets indicates that steady-state flow may possibly play a small role, in particular close to the injector, but site-specific assessments will be necessary to quantify the effect. Subject Conformal mappingInclusion theoryInduced seismicityPoro-elasticitySchwarz–Christoffel transformation To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1dedb090-615f-4bec-a151-22fad7cff587 DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-023-02029-w ISSN 0169-3913 Source Transport in Porous Media, 150 (3), 709-734 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 P. Cornelissen, J.D. Jansen Files PDF s11242_023_02029_w.pdf 1.8 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:1dedb090-615f-4bec-a151-22fad7cff587/datastream/OBJ/view