SPE-180265-MS

Laplace Domain Coupled Dual Continuum and Embedded Discrete

Fracture Model for Rate Transient Analysis in Low Permeability Reservoirs
Sidong Fang, Linsong Cheng, Shijun Huang, and Cao Renyi, China University of Petroleum

Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Low Perm Symposium held in Denver, Colorado, USA, 5– 6 May 2016.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Modeling transient flow of horizontal wells with complex fracture networks is attractive and
challenging topic for economically exploitation of low permeability reservoirs. Previous works have
been done by employing analytical, semi-analytical and numerical models to solve this problem. The
analytical trilinear-flow is not capable to capture the shapes and distributions of stimulated reservoir
volume (SRV), while semi-analytical source function method doesn’t consider natural fractures. In
the paper, we developed a hybrid coupled approach to combine the embedded-discrete-fracture model
(EDFM) and dual continuum representation in Laplace domain. The transient dual porosity with
various matrix-block size is implemented to incorporate the fracture spacing and the petro-physical
characteristics of flow from tight matrix to natural fractures. Large scale hydraulic fractures are
explicitly modeled using embedded-discrete-fracture model (EDFM) as the source terms in the
systems. Other than the equivalent distance and finite difference method used in EDFM, a novel
element-based numerical method called mixed boundary element method is developed to rigorously
capture the transient flow behavior of hydraulic fractured systems and couple the above models in
triangle grids. Several examples in this work are presented to show the robustness, applicability and
computational convenience of the hybrid approach for the rate transient and pressure transient
analysis of low permeability oil and gas reservoirs. The proposed model is validated by comparing
the results against both analytical trilinear solutions and other numerical solutions. In addition, the
method provides maximum flexibility of representation for complex fracture systems both in pressure
transient analysis and production forecast.

Introduction
The exploitation of low permeability reservoirs is increasingly a primary energy source around the globe.
Effective stimulation of low-permeability rock through multi-stage hydraulic fracturing of horizontal
wells is the key factor in economic development of such reservoirs. Hence, accurate characterization and
modelling of fracture flow is significant for production forecast and stimulation selection strategy. Yet, the
description of complex hydraulic fractures with intersecting natural fractures tight rock makes simulation
of flow much challenging.
2 SPE-180265-MS

Three classes of models have been proposed to model fractured systems, single anisotropic
continuum, dual continuum and discrete fracture models. Single equivalent continuum is only used
in some special cases which small-scaled fractures are dominated. Dual continuum models are the
most common method for modelling fractured systems and are widely used in the industry because
of its simplicity and practicability (Warren and Root, 1963, Kazemi, 1969, de Swaan-O, 1976, and
Serra et al., 1983). Although dual porosity and dual permeability models have been implemented in
both analytical equations and numerical simulators, the assumption of fracture uniformity does not
conform to field observations, which indicate height, length and spacing of natural fractures vary
individually in the reservoir. However, Moinfar et al. (2011) illustrated with examples which dual
continuum models are appropriate for reservoirs with a large number of connected, small-scale
fractures.
A more accurate and physics-based approach is the single porosity model that describes fractures
explicitly in the medium which is discrete fracture model (DFM). This model requires the fracture-
network characterization and the fracture–fluid interaction functions. Modeling fractures with the
single-porosity model can be classified as a complex case of heterogeneous porous media. Embedded
discrete fracture model (EDFM) borrows the dual-medium concept from conventional dual contin-
uum models and also incorporates the effect of each fracture explicitly. In contrast to dual continuum
models, fractures have arbitrary orientations and length, accounting for the complexity and hetero-
geneity of reservoir. The discrete-fracture model has been used in the finite difference (FD), finite
volume (FV), and the Galerkin finite element (FE). Besides, Taigbenu (1995) developed green
element method which combines the advantage of both boundary element method and finite element
method.
In this paper, we develop the green element method to apply it into the transfer calculation of matrix
to embedded fractured network and we also revisit the pseudo-steady and transient transfer function
between matrix and natural fractures. The green function is based on the newly derived fundamental
solutions in both single and dual continuum. The flow in the fracture network is discretized in finite
volume form, which transmissibility is calculated by star rules. Finally, we couple the three process
together to form a global coefficient matrix, the matrix is solved by sparse matrix algorithm.

Coupled Model Methodology

Large-scale hydraulic fractures provide the main paths for production of low permeability reservoirs.
Thus, a discrete fracture network model which can evaluate the production in each explicitly characterized
fracture is more accurate than a dual porosity model. However compared with hydraulic fractures,
numerous small-scale natural fractures induced by fracturing or pre-existed also play a significant role in
this kind of reservoir. Detailed characterization of small-scaled natural fractures is challenging so that it
is neither applicable nor efficient to modelling all the fractures. Hence, it is ideal to account for
small-scaled natural fractures by a dual continuum method and large-scaled hydraulic fractures by a
discrete fracture model.
SPE-180265-MS 3

Figure 1—Diagram of multiply fractured horizontal well and two kinds of fracture characterization

Dual-Porosity Models
In dual-porosity idealizations, natural fractures can be characterized in terms of equivalent properties,
including the usual parameters that we used to describe the homogeneous reservoirs and two additional
parameters (␻ and ␭) to account for fracture storage capacity and inner relation between matrix blocks and
fracture system. Their relations to the reservoir parameters are given by:
(1)

(2)

Where, ␣ is a geometric factor depends on the shape of the matrix blocks and is given by:
(3)

The value of n and l for different matrix block shapes are shown in Table 1

Table 1—Values of n and l for different matrix block shapes

Shape n l

Spheres (cubic model) 3 Radius of sphere

Cylinders (match-stick-model) 2 Radius of cylinder
Layers (slab model) 1 Thickness of layer

Pressure difference can be expressed as

(4)

Dimensionless pressure for constant rate production can be expressed as

4 SPE-180265-MS

(5)

Dimensionless pressure and flow rate for constant bottom-hole pressure can be expressed as
(6)

(7)

The Laplace domain dimensionless diffusivity equations of homogenous reservoir and naturally
fractured reservoir are given as
(8)

(9)

The function fD is summarized by EL-Banbi (1998), The detail derivation of function fd is given in
Appendix-A

Table 2—fD for different reservoir models

SPE-180265-MS 5

Table 3—fd for different reservoir models

Flow from Matrix (Natural Fractures) to Hydraulic Fractures

Two kinds of fundamental solutions for equation (8) and equation (9) is derived according to the Green
function. Hence, the integral equation for equation (9) can be expressed as
Bessel solution
(10)

where
(11)

Logarithm solution
(12)

where
(13)

The two solutions are equivalent and the Bessel solution is more accurate while the logarithm solution
is versatile to nonlinear equations. In this paper, we implemented our Bessel fundamental scheme on
unstructured triangle grids system as shown in Figure 2. For the local solution zone (LSZ), we obtain the
Matrix as
(14)
6 SPE-180265-MS

Figure 2—Triangle Grids with EDFM

Transform equation (14) to eliminate Matrix L, we have

(15)

The flow rate on closed boundary is zero and in the inner part of the domain, we add all the local matrix
together in a way similar to finite element stiffness matrix, we can eliminate the right terms of in the
equation
(16)

When comes to the grid contains embedded fracture element as in the Figure 3, we have
(17)

Figure 3—Triangle Grids with EDFM

Substitution of equation (15) into equation (17), we have

SPE-180265-MS 7

(18)

The detail derivation of matrix term is given in Appendix-B.

Flow in Hydraulic Fracture networks
A ⬙star-delta⬙ transformation proposed firstly by Karimi-Fard (2004) is implemented to account for the flow
in the multiple intersecting fracture networks, the flow in the fracture is simplified as one dimensional flow
(19)

Inverse Laplace transform of equation (19), we obtain

(20)

Equation (20) can be discretized by finite volume method, which the transmissibility for an intersection
with n connections can be generalized to
(21)

The fracture flow equations can be expressed in matrix form as

(22)

The terms of [A] is derived in Appendix-B

Coupled Flow Model
The whole grid system with embedded discrete fracture can be summarized in four parts: Matrix to
Matrix flow (grid to grid formulation), Natural fractures to Natural factures (same as the Matrix
continuum media), Matrix or Natural fractures to Hydraulic fractures (boundary integral formulation),
Hydraulic fractures to Hydraulic fractures (finite volume formulation). Combining equation (16), (18) and
(22), we have the system equation shown in Figure 4. Based on the linear equations, we can obtain both
the node pressure and the flow rate to hydraulic fracture and wellbore, example of pressure distribution
is shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6

Figure 4 —Diagram of System Matrix

8 SPE-180265-MS

Figure 5—Pressure difference in 0.1 day

Figure 6 —Pressure difference in 5 day

Model Validation
We assume the reservoir is fully penetrated by vertical fractures. Thus, all the model developed is 2D and
consequently gravity effect is neglected in this validation.

Problem 1: Infinite conductivity of fractured vertical well at constant flow rate and finite
conductivity of fractured vertical well at constant flow rate.
Gringarden (1974) integral over the source function to obtain the pressure transient of vertically fractured
well in an infinite reservoir. The assumption of fracture conductivity is infinite which means there is no
pressure drop along the fracture. As shown in Figure 6, the EDFM solution match exactly with the
previous solution in dimensionless pressure. The slope in early times indicate the linear flow regime. We
also compared with the solution of finite conductivity solution of Blasingame (1993), the EDFM solution
of closed boundary reservoir matches both the pressure and pressure derivative in the early linear, early
bilinear and radial flow regime. When the pressure transmission reaches the boundary, the pressure
increase dramatically.
SPE-180265-MS 9

Figure 7—Comparison of different solution of infinite conductivity fracture

Problem 2: Infinite conductivity of fractured vertical well at constant flow rate in naturally
fractured reservoir.
Cinco-Ley (1988) derived the solution of vertical fracture transient response in dual porosity continuum.
We use EDFM model to reproduce the same pressure and pressure derivative as shown in Figure 8.
Transient transfer function is also compared with pseudo-steady state solution, the difference of pressure
derivative is shown in Figure 9 which illustrate the same trend in previous research by Brown (2009).

Figure 8 —Comparison of different solution of finite conductivity fracture

Figure 9 —Comparison of different solution of infinite conductivity fracture in dual porosity domain
10 SPE-180265-MS

Problem 3: Trilinear flow in multiply fractured horizontal well.

Based on the data in Table 4, we produce the same result with the trilinear flow analytical solution
proposed by Brown (2011) as shown in Figure 10

Table 4 —Data used in the comparison of trilinear flow and EDFM model results

Figure 10 —Comparison of pseudo and transient solution of infinite conductivity fracture in dual porosity domain

Problem 4: Heterogeneous case compared with CMG Simulator.

Based on the data in Table 5, we compare the results of EDFM with CMG Simulator and get the same
results presented in Figure 11
SPE-180265-MS 11

Table 5—Data used in the comparison of CMG and EDFM

model results
Value

Model Parameter Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3

Height of formation/m 10
Horizontal permeability/10⫺3␮m2 0.2 0.5 1
Vertical permeability/10⫺3␮m2 0
Initial pressure/MPa 20
Bottom-hole pressure/MPa 10
Oil viscosity/mPa·s 2.7
Porosity 0.2
Volume factor 1.036
Fracture half length/m 150
Fracture conductivity/D·cm 15

Figure 11—Comparison of the trilinear and EDFM model results

Figure 12—Comparison of the CMG and EDFM model results

12 SPE-180265-MS

Further Examples
Case 1: Multiply bi-wing fractured horizontal well and multiply network fractured horizontal
well
We compared the bi-wing fractured well with the network fractured horizontal well, they both exhibit the
linear flow characteristic, however the fracture network provide more fast flow path in the low perme-
ability reservoir. Figure 13 shows the pressure distribution of bi-wing fracture and Figure 14 shows the
flow rate decline. Figure 15 shows the pressure distribution of fracture network and Figure 16 shows the
flow rate decline.

Figure 13—Pressure distribution of heterogeneous case

Figure 14 —Pressure distribution of Bi-wing fracture

Figure 15—Flow rate decline of Bi-wing fracture

SPE-180265-MS 13

Figure 16 —Pressure distribution of fracture network

Case 2: Heterogeneous reservoir and coupled natural fracture with hydraulic fracture.
In this case, we produced the linear distributed permeability and presented the both permeability and
pressure distribution in Figure 17 and Figure 18. Two sub cases are investigated in terms of SRV
distribution as shown in Figure 19 and Figure 20.

Figure 17—Flow rate decline of fracture network

Figure 18 —Permeability distribution

14 SPE-180265-MS

Figure 19 —Pressure distribution

Figure 20 —Pressure distribution of SRV in constant Pwf

Figure 21—Pressure distribution of SRV in constant flow rate

Conclusion
Based on green function and integral theory, we have developed a coupled dual porosity and embedded
discrete fracture model to simulate the flow in both natural fractures and hydraulic fractures. Large-scaled
hydraulic fractures modeled explicitly using mixed boundary element method, the flow between inter-
secting fractures is used in finite volume method. Numerous small-scaled natural fractures are modeled
using a dual porosity approach which include two options for transfer function from matrix to fractures,
one is pseudo-steady, the other is transient transfer function. A coupled approach is devised to calculate
the transfer process among all the different scale domain.
SPE-180265-MS 15

We use several examples to illustrate the applicability of the hybrid with the comparison with the
analytical and semi-analytical results of different fracture pattern. Our method can handle both bi-wing
fractures and complex fracture network, besides, the model can also handle heterogeneous reservoir
simulation and efficient treatment of natural fractures. We also analyze the effect of fracture and formation
parameters on the production and pressure propagation and found that complex fracture network and
natural fractures can largely lead to the propagation and production in the inner induced area.

Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful for financial support from the National Basic Research Program of China (973
Program) 2015CB250900, ⬙fundamental study on the efficient development of continental tight oil⬙.

Nomenclature
B ⫽ formation volume factor
ct ⫽ compressibility of fluid, LM⫺1T2,psi⫺1
h ⫽ height of the formation, L, ft
k ⫽ formation permeability, L2, md
l ⫽ character length, L, ft
pi ⫽ initial pressure, L⫺1MT⫺2, psi
p ⫽ pressure, L⫺1MT⫺2, psi
pD ⫽ dimensionless pressure
pwf ⫽ well bottom-hole pressure, L⫺1MT⫺2, psi
qD ⫽ dimensionless volumetric flow rate
qSC ⫽ volumetric flow rate, L3/T,ft3/D
r ⫽ radius, L, ft
rw ⫽ well radius, L, ft
rD ⫽ dimensionless radius
t ⫽ time, T, D
tD ⫽ dimensionless time
␾ ⫽ porosity
␭ ⫽ transfer coefficient
␳i ⫽ initial gas density,

␩ ⫽ hydraulic fracture diffusivity, ft2/d

␮ ⫽ viscosity, L⫺1T⫺1M, cp
␻ ⫽ fracture storage capacity

References
Brown, M., Ozkan, E., Raghavan, R. et al 2011. Practical Solutions for Pressure-Transient Responses of Fractured
Horizontal Wells in Unconventional Shale Reservoirs. SPE J. 2(3): 235–245. SPE-125043-PA. http://dx.doi.org/
10.2118/125043-PA
Blasingame, T. A. and Poe, B. D. Jr., 1993. Semi-analytic Solutions for a Well With a Single Finite- Conductivity Vertical
Fracture. Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, USA, 3– 6 October. SPE-
26424-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/26424-MS.
Cinco-Ley, H., Samaniego, F.V., and Dominguez, N., 1978, Transient pressure behavior of a well with a finite-
conductivity vertical fracture, SPE Journal, 253–264, August.
Cinco, L. H. and Meng, H.-Z. (1988). Pressure Transient Analysis of Wells with Finite Conductivity Vertical Fractures
in Double Porosity Reservoirs, SPE 18172, SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 2-5 October 1988,
Houston, Texas.
16 SPE-180265-MS

De Swaan-O., A. (1976). Analytical Solutions for Determining Naturally Fractured Reservoir Properties by Well Testing.
Soc. Pet. Eng. Jour. (June) 117–122; Trans., AIME, Vol. 261.
El-Banbi, Ahmed H. and Wattenbarger, Robert A.: ⬙Analysis of Linear Flow in Gas Well Production⬙, paper SPE 39972
presented at the 1998 Gas Technology Symposium, Calgary, March 15-18
Gringarten, A. C., Ramey, H. J., & Raghavan, R. (1974). Unsteady-State Pressure Distributions Created by a Well With
a Single Infinite-Conductivity Vertical Fracture. SPE. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/4051-PA
Kazemi, H. (1969). Pressure Transient Analysis of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs with Uniform Fracture Distributions,
Soc. Pet. Eng. Jour. (Dec.) 451–461; Trans., AIME, Vol. 246.
Karimi-fard, M., Durlofsky, L.J., and Aziz, K., 2004, An efficient discrete-fracture model applicable for general purpose
reservoir simulators, SPE Journal, Vol. 9, 227–236.
Kazemi, H., Merrill, L.S., Porterfield, K.L., and Zeman, P.R., 1976, Numerical simulation of water-oil flow in naturally
fractured reservoirs, SPE Journal, December.
Kim, J.G. and Deo, M., 2000, Finite element discrete-fracture model for multiphase flow in porous media, AICHE J., Vol.
46, 1120.
Lee, S.H., Lough, M.F., and Jensen, C.L., 2001, Hierarchical modeling of flow in naturally fractured formations with
multiple length scales, Water Resources Research, Vol. 37, 443.
Moinfar, A., Narr, W., Hui, R., Mallison, B., and Lee, S.H., 2011, Comparison of discrete-fracture and dual-permeability
models for multiphase flow in naturally fractured reservoirs, SPE 142295, SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium, The
Woodlands, TX, February 21-23
Medeiros, F., Jr. Ozkan, E., and Kazemi, H. (2008). Productivity and Drainage Area of Fractured Horizontal Wells in Tight
GasReservoirs. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 5 (Oct.) 902–911.
Ozkan, E., Brown, M., Raghavan, R., and Kazemi, H. (2009). Comparison of Fractured Horizontal-Well Performance in
Conventional and Unconventional Reservoirs, SPE 121290, SPE Western Regional Meeting, 24 –26 March 2009, San
Jose, California.
Raghavan, R. S., Chen, C. and Agarwal, B. (1997). An Analysis of Horizontal Wells Intercepted by Multiple Fractures.
Soc. Pet. Eng. Jour. Vol. 2, (Sept.) 235–245.
Serra, K., Reynolds, A. C., and Raghavan, R. (1983). New Pressure Transient Analysis Methods for Naturally Fractured
Reservoirs. Jour. Pet. Tech. (Dec.) 2271–2283.
Stehfest, H. 1970. Algorithm 368: Numerical Inversion of Laplace Transforms. Communications of the ACM. 13: 47–49.
Taigbenu AE. The Green element method. Int J Numer Methods Eng 1995;38:2241–63.
Warren, J.E. and Root, P.J., 1963, The behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs, SPE Journal, 245–255, September.
SPE-180265-MS 17

Appendix A
Revisit of Dual Continuum Model
Dual continuum models are the conventional method for simulating fractured systems and are widely used
in the industry. Barenblat et al. (1960) and Warren and Root (1963) introduced a pseudo-steady dual
porosity approach, also known as a sugar cube model, for single-phase systems. In the dual porosity
model, the rock matrix stores the hydrocarbons, while flow occurs entirely from the matrix to the fractures
and from the fractures to the production wells. Another dual porosity model is transient dual-porosity
model (Kazemi, 1969, de Swaan, 1976, and Serra et al., 1983) which represents the transient flow from
the matrix to natural fractures.
Natural fracture flow equation
(A-1)

Pseudo-steady dual porosity model

(A-2)

(A-3)

Laplace inversion of equation (A-1) to (A-3), and respectively substitution of equation (A-2) into
equation (A-1) and equation (A-3), we have
(A-4)

(A-5)

Substitution of equation (A-4) into equation (A-5), we obtain

(A-6)

Transient dual porosity model (slabs)

Matrix flow equation
(A-7)

(A-8)

(A-9)

(A-10)

Solve equation (A-7) to (A-10), we have

18 SPE-180265-MS

(A-11)

Transient dual porosity model (cubes)

Matrix flow equation
(A-12)

(A-13)

(A-14)

(A-15)

Solve equation (A-12) to (A-15), we have

(A-16)
SPE-180265-MS 19

Appendix B
Mixed boundary element matrix term and finite volume Matrix term
Mixed boundary element method is a grid based integral numerical method as shown in Figure B-1. It lies
in the same basic theorem as boundary element method while it combines the local approximation as finite
element method. We build local matrix term for one triangle grid, then combine all the local matrix
together.
(B-1)

where
(B-2)

(B-3)

(B-4)

(B-5)

where
(B-6)

(B-7)

Figure B-1—Diagram of triangle grid

20 SPE-180265-MS

Finite volume method to account for the one dimensional flow in the fracture networks which is
illustrated in four element fracture network as shown in Figure B-2
(B-8)

where
(B-9)

T account for the transmissibility term and Ac account for the accumulation term

Figure B-2—Diagram of fracture element