Predictive Modeling of the Evolution of Fault Structure: 3-D Modeling and Coupled Geomechanical/Flow Simulation

Reconstruction of geological structures has the potential to provide additional insight into the effect of the depositional history on the current-day geomechanical and hydro-geologic state. Accurate modeling of the reconstruction process is, however, complex, necessitating advanced procedures for t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rock mechanics and rock engineering 2014-09, Vol.47 (5), p.1533-1549
Main Authors: Thornton, D. A., Crook, A. J. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Benchmarks
Buildings. Public works
Civil Engineering
Computation methods. Tables. Charts
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Energy dissipation
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Exact sciences and technology
Faults
Fluid flow
Geological structures
Geomechanics
Geophysics/Geodesy
Geotechnics
Joining
Mathematical models
Mechanical properties
Original Paper
Predictive control
Reconstruction
Rock mechanics
Simulation
Soil mechanics. Rocks mechanics
Structural analysis. Stresses
Three dimensional
Three dimensional imaging
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Summary:Reconstruction of geological structures has the potential to provide additional insight into the effect of the depositional history on the current-day geomechanical and hydro-geologic state. Accurate modeling of the reconstruction process is, however, complex, necessitating advanced procedures for the prediction of fault formation and evolution within fully coupled geomechanical, fluid flow and temperature fields. In this paper, a 3-D computational approach is presented that is able to forward model complex structural evolution with multiple intersecting faults that exhibit large relative movement within a coupled geomechanical/flow environment. The approach adopts the Lagrangian method, complemented by robust and efficient automated adaptive meshing techniques, an elasto-plastic constitutive model based on critical state concepts, and global energy dissipation regularized by inclusion of fracture energy in the equations governing state variable evolution. The proposed model is validated by comparison of 2-D plane strain and 3-D thin-slice predictions of a bench-scale experiment, and then applied to two conceptual coupled geomechanical/fluid flow field-scale benchmarks.
ISSN:0723-2632
1434-453X
DOI:10.1007/s00603-014-0589-6