Modeling of Shale Formations and Computing Their Effective Properties

Abstract:

This paper describes new approaches to characterization and modeling of shale formations, and estimating their effective flow and transport properties. Due to the existence of at least three distinct scales in the size of shales’ pores, accurate representation of the morphology of shales is a difficult problem. At the same time, precisely because of the multiscale nature of shales, there are also various regimes of flow and transport of gases in shales, including surface, hindered, and Knudsen diffusion, as well as viscous flow, which depend on the size of the pores. We describe modeling of shales, and numerical simulation of flow and transport of multicomponent gases in them, and compare them with the past approximations.