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，这将进一步推动与这些国家的国际合作沿着发展道路前进。我们的项目将利用意大利和德国的现有数据和专业知识，建立一个定量模型，将流经裂隙石灰岩的流体与当地的地应力状态联系起来。地热能对英国具有潜在的重要意义，因为下石炭统石灰岩 (LCL) 地层位于曼彻斯特、利物浦和布里斯托尔等大城市地区的下方，是一种可行的地热能来源，尤其是供热。在 LCL 中，人们认为流体主要通过裂缝流动，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流体在深度发生的自然应力下如何在裂隙石灰岩中流动。人们提出了几种不同的模型和方法来解释这种联系，但我们还无法在英国测试这些模型，因为我们缺乏裂缝网络、流体流速和两公里或以上深度处的地应力的相关数据。这项与我们的意大利合作伙伴拟议的新合作将使用先前对意大利南部（波坦察附近的上阿格里山谷）石灰石研究的大型数据集。可用的数据集涵盖裂缝、水井和油井的流体流速以及地应力。我们将整理所有这些数据，并在德国新项目合作伙伴的帮助下，构建 Agri 山谷下方地下裂缝的数字 3D 模型，跨度为 30 x 10 x 5 公里（长 x 宽 x 深）。在此模型中，我们将在裂缝上施加应力（基于意大利的应力数据）并预测模拟钻孔中的流体流动。通过将这些流体流动模型预测与意大利钻孔测量的钻孔流量进行比较，我们可以测试应力石灰岩裂缝中流体流动的主要控制的竞争假设。这为未来对英国地下裂缝和应力石灰岩中潜在流体流动的分析提供了坚实的科学基础。将来，我们将能够根据英国下石炭统石灰岩的具体情况调整我们的农业谷测试模型，以帮助公司和其他机构制定安全且经济高效的地热能钻孔计划。