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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 95, No. 11 (November 2011), P. 18831905.

Copyright copy2011. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/03241108148

From outcrop to flow simulation: Constructing discrete fracture models from a LIDAR survey

Christopher E. Wilson,1 Atilla Aydin,2 Mohammad Karimi-Fard,3 Louis J. Durlofsky,4 Amir Sagy,5 Emily E. Brodsky,6 Oliver Kreylos,7 Louise H. Kellogg8

1Chevron North America Exploration and Production, 1500 Louisiana St, Houston, Texas 77002; [email protected]
2Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; [email protected]
3Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; [email protected]
4Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; [email protected]
5Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel 95501; [email protected]
6Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95604; [email protected]
7Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization (IDAV), Department of Computer Science and W. M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES), University of California, Davis,Davis, California 95616; [email protected]
8Department of Geology University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Terrestrial light detection and ranging (LIDAR) surveys offer potential enrichment of outcrop-based research efforts to characterize fracture networks and assess their impact on subsurface fluid flow. Here, we explore two methods to extract the three-dimensional (3-D) positions of natural fractures from a LIDAR survey collected at a roadcut through the Cretaceous Austin Chalk: (1) a manual method using the University of California, Davis, Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences and (2) a semiautomated method based on mean normal and Gaussian curvature surface classification. Each extraction method captures the characteristic frequencies and orientations of the primary fracture sets that we identified in the field, yet they extract secondary fracture sets with varying ability. After making assumptions regarding fracture lengths and apertures, the extracted fractures served as a basis to construct a discrete fracture network (DFN) that agrees with field observations and a priori knowledge of fracture network systems. Using this DFN, we performed flow simulations for two hypothetical scenarios: with and without secondary fracture sets. The results of these two scenarios indicate that for this particular fracture network, secondary fracture sets marginally impact (sim10% change) the breakthrough time of water injected into an oil-filled reservoir. Our work provides a prototype workflow that links outcrop fracture observations to 3-D DFN model flow simulations using LIDAR data, an approach that offers some improvement over traditional field-based DFN constructions. In addition, the techniques we used to extract fractures may prove applicable to other outcrop studies with different research goals.

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