Numerical Modeling and Simulations of Natural Gas Transport in Heterogeneous Shale Rocks Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

Date

2017-05

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Abstract

This research consists of work mainly performed within the Shale Gas Development project by PetroChina RIPED focusing on the prediction of transport properties in shale reservoirs. In this dissertation, we focus on the development of the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method and the applications of LB simulations on multi-scale shale digital rocks. Firstly, we developed a pore-scale LB model that incorporates the inter-molecular and adsorptive forces on gas particles. Through several benchmark problems, we investigated the slippage and adsorption effects of natural gas in organic nano-pores. Moreover, this model has been applied to various gas flows in complex pore systems. Secondly, we developed a novel upscaling workflow to predict rock/fluid properties of gas shales by coupling the lattice Boltzmann method with the molecular dynamics simulations. This workflow utilized digital rocks at multi-scale and estimated the the core-scale rock/fluid properties while maintaining critical properties at finer-scale. Thirdly, an apparent permeability function was developed by combining effects of viscous flow, Knudsen diffusion and surface diffusion. This apparent permeability function was incorporated into the representative elementary volume-scale LB model. In addition, we applied the LB simulations to predict the effective permeability of shale rocks. Finally, we developed a unified grayscale multi-component multiphase (MCMP) LB model for fractured and vuggy rocks, which was developed based on the pseudopotential LB model with the incorporation of multiphase non-Darcy equations. This MCMP model automatically switches from the Darcy multiphase regime to the free- flow multiphase regime based on the rock properties of each simulation element.

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Keywords

Shale gas, Lattice Boltzmann Methods, Digital rock physics

Citation

Portions of this document appear in: Ning, Yang, Yang Jiang, Honglin Liu, and Guan Qin. "Numerical modeling of slippage and adsorption effects on gas transport in shale formations using the lattice Boltzmann method." Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 26 (2015): 345-355. And in: Ning, Yang, Shuai He, Honglin Liu, Hongyan Wang, and Guan Qin. "A rigorous upscaling procedure to predict macro-scale transport properties of natural gas in shales by coupling molecular dynamics with lattice Boltzmann method." In SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2016. And in: Ning, Yang, Shuai He, Honglin Liu, Hongyan Wang, and Guan Qin. "Permeability prediction considering surface diffusion for gas shales by lattice Boltzmann simulations on multi-scale reconstructed digital rocks." In International Petroleum Technology Conference. International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2016.
Portions of this document appear in: Ning, Yang, Yang Jiang, Honglin Liu, and Guan Qin. "Numerical modeling of slippage and adsorption effects on gas transport in shale formations using the lattice Boltzmann method." Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 26 (2015): 345-355. And in: Ning, Yang, Shuai He, Honglin Liu, Hongyan Wang, and Guan Qin. "A rigorous upscaling procedure to predict macro-scale transport properties of natural gas in shales by coupling molecular dynamics with lattice Boltzmann method." In SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2016. And in: Ning, Yang, Shuai He, Honglin Liu, Hongyan Wang, and Guan Qin. "Permeability prediction considering surface diffusion for gas shales by lattice Boltzmann simulations on multi-scale reconstructed digital rocks." In International Petroleum Technology Conference. International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2016.