A Brief Introduction to Poroelasticity and Simulation of Coupled Geomechanics and Flow in MRST

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss how two-way coupled fluid flow and geomechanics can be modeled in the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) using the ad-mechanics module. A brief introduction to linear poroelasticity is provided, which is a common framework for studying geomechanics in the context of reservoir management or groundwater applications. We review commonly used poroelastic coefficients and moduli and present a handy tool that removes the need to manually navigate the large number of poroelastic relationships to compute values of needed parameters. The chapter further provides three examples where wellknown model cases in linear elasticity and poroelasticity are modeled in MRST and compared with results from analytical estimates. These examples include the compression of a dry sample (a linear elastic problem) as well as the compression of a wet sample (Terzaghi’s problem) and Mandel’s problem.