Geomechanical Controls on Multiphase Fluid Flow in Naturally Fractured Carbonate Reservoir

The Geotechnical Society of Edmonton (GSE) presents Amir Haghi, PhD, winner of the 2020 N.R. Morgenstern Award (previously the GSE Graduate Student Award). His talk is entitled, "Geomechanical Controls on Multiphase Fluid Flow in Naturally Fractured Carbonate Reservoir". Abstract: A novel semi-analytical model was developed to study the influence of stress-dependent effects on porosity, absolute permeability, relative permeability, and capillary pressure on the imbibition and oil recovery mechanisms of both intact rock and fracture in a cubic block model. To capture the geomechanical interactions involved, pure compliance poroelastic definitions and nonlinear joint normal stiffness equations were used to assess the deformation of intact rock and fracture, respectively. Speaker bio: Dr. Haghi is a postdoctoral fellow with the Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group at the University of Alberta. His primary research interests include geomechanics and multiphase fluid flow in earth materials for applications in subsurface CO2 storage and the wider geoenergy field (e.g., geothermal energy and hydrocarbon recovery). Dr. Haghii received his PhD degree in geotechnical engineering (reservoir geomechanics) from the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Rick Chalaturnyk and co-supervision of Dr. Sebastian Geiger (Heriot-Watt University, UK).