Modeling of 1D Anomalous Diffusion in Fractured Nanoporous Media

Abstract

Fractured nanoporous reservoirs include multi-scale and discontinuous fractures coupled with a complex nanoporous matrix. Such systems cannot be described by the conventional dual-porosity (or multi-porosity) idealizations due to the presence of different flow mechanisms at multiple scales. More detailed modeling approaches, such as Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) models, similarly suffer from the extensive data requirements dictated by the intricacy of the flow scales, which eventually deter the utility of these models. This paper discusses the utility and construction of 1D analytical and numerical anomalous diffusion models for heterogeneous, nanoporous media, which is commonly encountered in oil and gas production from tight, unconventional reservoirs with fractured horizontal wells. A fractional form of Darcy’s law, which incorporates the non-local and hereditary nature of flow, is coupled with the classical mass conservation equation to derive a fractional diffusion equation in space and time. Results show excellent agreement with established solutions under asymptotic conditions and are consistent with the physical intuitions.