Quantifying Fluid Flow in Stressed & Fractured Carbonates

量化受压流体流动

• 批准号: NE/Y003322/1
• 负责人: David Healy
• 金额: $ 10.34万
• 依托单位: University of Aberdeen
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FY003322%2F1
• 关键词: Quantifying; Fluid; Flow; Stressed; Fractured

We urgently need to develop new renewable energy sources in the UK, and this will take international collaboration with those countries further along the development path. Our project will build a quantitative model that links the fluid flow through fractured limestone with the local state of in situ stress, using existing data and expertise from Italy and Germany. Geothermal energy is potentially important for the UK because the Lower Carboniferous Limestone (LCL) formation underlies large urban areas, e.g., Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol, and is a viable source of geothermal energy, especially for supplying heat. In the LCL, it is believed that fluid flows mainly through fractures rather than through the rock grains in between the fractures. This means that we need to better understand how fluid flows in fractured limestones under natural stresses occurring at depth. Several different models and methods have been proposed to explain this linkage but we cannot test these models in the UK yet, because we lack the relevant data on the fracture networks, the fluid flow rates and the in situ stress at depths of two or more kilometres. This proposed new collaboration with our Italian partner will use large datasets from previous studies on limestones in southern Italy - the Upper Agri valley near Potenza. The datasets available cover fractures, fluid flow rates from water and oil boreholes, and in situ stresses. We will collate all these data and, with help from new project partners in Germany, build a digital 3D model of the fractured subsurface beneath the Agri valley, spanning 30 x 10 x 5 km (length x width x depth). In this model, we will impose stresses on the fractures (based on the stress data from Italy) and predict the fluid flow from simulated boreholes. By comparing these model predictions of fluid flow to the measured borehole flow rates from boreholes Italy we can test the competing hypotheses for the dominant controls on fluid flow in stressed limestone fractures. This then provides a scientifically robust foundation on which to build future analyses of potential fluid flow in the fractured and stressed limestones beneath the UK. In the future, we will be able to adapt our tested model for the Agri valley to the specifics of the UK Lower Carboniferous Limestone, to help companies and other agencies to develop their plans to drill safe and cost-effective boreholes for geothermal energy.

我们迫切需要在英国开发新的可再生能源，这将沿着发展道路与这些国家的国际合作。我们的项目将使用意大利和德国的现有数据和专业知识来建立一个定量模型，该定量模型将通过破裂的石灰石与原位应力的局部状态联系起来。地热能对英国很重要，因为低石炭纪石灰石（LCL）的形成是大型城市地区的基础，例如曼彻斯特，利物浦和布里斯托尔，并且是地热能的可行来源，尤其是用于供应热量。在LCL中，人们认为流体主要流过裂缝，而不是通过裂缝之间的岩石颗粒流动。这意味着我们需要更好地了解在深度发生的自然应力下裂缝石灰石中的流体如何流动。已经提出了几种不同的模型和方法来解释这种联系，但是我们还不能在英国测试这些模型，因为我们缺乏裂缝网络，流体流速和在两个或多个公里深度的原位应力上的相关数据。这项提议与意大利合作伙伴的新合作将使用以前在意大利南部石灰岩的研究（Potenza附近的上农业山谷）的大型数据集。可用的数据集涵盖裂缝，水和油井的流动率以及原位应力。我们将整理所有这些数据，并在德国的新项目合作伙伴的帮助下，在农业山谷下方建立一个数字3D模型，跨越30 x 10 x 5 km（长度x宽度x深度）。在此模型中，我们将对裂缝（基于意大利的应力数据）施加应力，并预测模拟钻孔的流体流动。通过将流体流量的这些模型预测与意大利钻孔的测得的钻孔流速进行比较，我们可以测试应力石灰石骨折中流体流动流量的主要控制的竞争假设。然后，这为科学的基础提供了一个坚固的基础，以在英国下方的破裂和压力的石灰石中对潜在的流体流进行未来的分析。将来，我们将能够使我们的Agri Valley测试模型适应英国低石炭纪石灰石的细节，以帮助公司和其他机构制定其计划，以钻取安全且具有成本效益的地热能钻孔。