Flow in evolving fractures and porous media, and related impact on mineralization and

surrounding stresses

Fredrik K. Eriksen

Supervisor: Renaud Toussaint

Cotutelle agreement with U. OsloCo-supervisors: Knut J. Måløy & Eirik G. Flekkøy

Introduction

• Start of Ph.D: 01/09/2013

• Project outline Experiment & Investigate: 1. Transformation of porous media caused by fluid flow: - Due to fluid pressure and/or chemical reactions 2. Impact of the solid transformation on the fluid flow Research focus (FRAC & REACT): Transforming reservoirs, coupling of fast and slow transformation with particular emphasis on hydrocarbon and contaminant transport

• FlowTrans ITN Cooperation network of 10 partners from across Europe in the academic, research and industry sectors

Progress during the previous year

• Worked on experiments with pressure driven deformation: 1. Air invasion into saturated deformable porous media:

- Analyzed experimental data, prepared an article - Article submitted to Frontiers in Physics 2. Aerofractures in confined granular media:

- Tested and obtained several image processing methods useful for structural and solid deformation analysis - Performed experiments & gathered data • Started experiments with chemically evolving fractures: - Visited IRIS (Stavanger, Norway) and performed experiments - Measured surface topography of fracture surfaces before/after reactive flow - Designed an experimental setup for similar experiments in Strasbourg

40cm

1mm

Experiments in thin cells – Immiscible flow

Air invasion into a liquid-saturated deformableporous media

The solid deformation We study:

The structure of invasion patterns

Experiments in thin cells - Aerofractures

80 micron beads

Acoustic emissions

The solid deformation We study:

85cm

1.5mm

The structure of invasion patterns

S. Turkaya, F.K. Eriksen, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy, "Aerofracture through a double looking glass, mixing optics and acoustics", Flowtrans Review April 2014, p. 4-16, http://www.flowtrans.net/newsletters/

F.K. Eriksen, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy, "Invasion patterns during two-phase flow in deformable porous media", manuscript submitted to Frontiers in Physics (08/2015), http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/3084/flow-and-transformations-in-porous-media

S. Turkaya, R. Toussaint, F.K. Eriksen, G. Daniel, M. Zecevic, E.G. Flekkøy, K.J. Måløy, “Bridging aero-fracture evolution with the characteristics of the acoustic emissions in a porous medium”, Frontiers in Physics (2015), http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/3084/flow-and-transformations-in-porousmedia, doi:10.3389/fphy.2015.00070

Experiments in thin cells - Articles

Reactive flow through fractured rock

Measured areaBenchmarks: drilled holes with 1.5mm diameter

Side A

Side B

(mirrored)

The pieces are put together, and the fracture is flooded with reactive fluid (distilled water)

Surface topography is mapped before & afterflooding (only before here)

Chalk plug is broken into two pieces

1 cm

1 cm

Meetings and dissemination

FlowTrans Workshop 3, Poland, Oct 2014:Oral presentation: "Flow in chemically evolving fractures and porous media, and related impact on mineralization and surrounding stresses", F.K. Eriksen, S. Turkaya, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy

Congrès des Doctorants 2014, Strasbourg, Nov 2014Poster presentation: "Aerofractures in confined granular media", F.K. Eriksen, S. Turkaya, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy

EGU General Assembly 2015, Austria, Apr 2015:Poster presentation: "Aerofractures in confined granular media", F.K. Eriksen, S. Turkaya, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy

FlowTrans Workshop 4, Turkey, May 2015: Poster presentation: "Aerofractures in confined granular media", F.K. Eriksen, S. Turkaya, R. Toussaint, K.J. Måløy, E.G. Flekkøy, (Received the best poster award)

Training

Workshop 3, Poland:-Caves & Salt Mines (2h)-Introduction to numerical modelling (6h)-How to write papers (4h)-Rapid poster communication (1h)-Career aspirations and possibilities (2h)

Workshop 4, Turkey:-North Anatolian fault (5h)-Identify, sketch and analyze faults in the field (17h)-Layout and presentation of posters (3h)-Valoridoc: job application, interview and career seminar (17h)-How to write a grant proposal (5h)

Public outreach: Update events section of the FlowTrans webpage http://www.flowtrans.net/events-2

Plans for the next year

Visit to CSIRO, Australia Experiments:Strength tests of sandstone during pore fluid injection in high pressure conditions

Duration: ~1 monthDate: Early 2016

Aerofracture projectCorrelate optical results and numerical simulations with the acoustic data: identify acoustic sources and signals emitted by granular displacement or airvibrations in the fracture

Perform a structural analysis of the fracturing patterns in experiments with changing initial parameters and compare with numerical models

Reactive flooding projectAnalyse the already obtained data

Perform new experiments while also measuring the stress change during flooding