ParaFrac : a Gocad plugin for analyzing fracture networks

@inproceedings{HamlaouiRM2019,
 abstract = { Fractures have major impact on fluid flows but are hardly observable on seismic and are only depicted along some well data, hence along only one dimensional subsurface data. Analyzing fracture networks from outcrop data is then of paramount importance to understand their complexity and their impact on fluid flow. Fracture densities and intensities in several dimensional space are common tools to describe fracture sets in addition to their geometrical parameters such as sizes and orientations. These parameters are used by stochastic simulators to generate 3D Discrete Fracture Networks (DFN), on which flow simulations or other computations can be applied. Other parameters, such as the Lacunarity, are computed to characterize the pattern of the fracture spatial distribution (random, cluster, fractal, etc.) as well as topological indices for describing the network complexity. In this work, we propose a Gocad plugin, ParaFrac, for studying fracture networks in 1D, 2D and 3D. The ParaFrac plugin provides functionalities to compute P10 (number of fracture per length) to P33 (volume of fractures per volume of rocks) parameters from, respectively, field scanlines or well data, 2D interpretations of fracture traces, and 3D simulated DFN. The ultimate objective of ParaFrac is to offer functionalities for computing various fracture characteristics (Lacunarity, etc.). Two main applications are possible using ParaFrac. First, these parameter computations can be performed from outcrop data for a reservoir analogue study. In this case, the objective is to characterize analogue fracture network to nourish a subsurface database. Second, the ParaFrac functionalities can be used to analyze and quantitatively compare 3D DFN simulations. Some examples of these applications will be shown to illustrate the ParaFrac plugin possibilities. },
 author = { Hamlaoui, Soumia AND Viseur, Sophie AND Lamarche, Juliette AND Garcia, Michel AND Gauthier, Bertrand },
 booktitle = { 2019 Ring Meeting },
 publisher = { ASGA },
 title = { ParaFrac : a Gocad plugin for analyzing fracture networks },
 year = { 2019 }
}