Naturally fractured reservoirs are of great importance in various disciplines such as hydrogeology, hydrocarbon reservoir management, nuclear waste repositories, CO2 storage and geothermal reservoir engineering. This session addresses novel ideas as well as established concepts for the representation and numerical simulation of discontinuities and processes in fractured media.
The presence of fractures modifies the bulk physical properties of the original media by many orders of magnitudes and often introduces strongly nonlinear behaviour. Fractures also provide the main flow and transport pathways in the rock mass, dominating over the permeability of the rock matrix and creating anisotropic flow fields and transport.
Numerical modelling of such systems is especially challenging and often requires creative new ideas and solutions, for example the use of stochastic models. Understanding the hydraulic and mechanical properties of fractures and fracture networks thus is crucial for predicting the movement of any fluid such as water, air, hydrocarbons, or CO2.
The geologist toolboxes for modelling fractured rocks and simulating processes in fractured media experiences constant extension and improvement. Contributions are especially welcome from the following topics:
• Deterministic or stochastic approaches for structural construction of fractured media
• Continuous or discontinuous (DFN) modelling methods representing static hydraulic and/or mechanical characteristics of fractured media
• Simulation of dynamic processes, hydraulic and/or mechanical behaviour and THMC coupling in fractured media
• Deterministic and stochastic inversion methods for calibrating numerical models of fractured media
• Numerical modelling concepts of accounting for fractured properties specifically in groundwater, petroleum or geothermal management applications
We encourage researchers to elaborate on applied projects on the role of faults and fractures in subsurface energy systems in our session. We are interested in research across different scales and disciplines and welcome ECS warmly.