Predicting Production of Shale Gas Reservoirs: Impact of Hydraulic Fracture Geometry

The present research used a numerical simulation technique known as the discrete fracture model (dfm) to examine the propagation of shale gas in fractured porous media. it employed a novel mathematical model for seepage flow, incorporating the application of the 'cubic law' for flow in fractures and darcy's law for the seepage flow in the matrix. the impact of fracture aperture on flow behavior was simulated by solving a set of nonlinear, partial, differential equations using the finite element method (fem). through this work, a sensitivity analysis of the significant parameters, including hydraulic fracture numbers and permeability, hydraulic fracture aperture, and wellbore length, on the productivity of a shale gas reservoir was conducted. hydraulic fracture permeability with increasing oil production (more than twice) had the greatest effect on the wellbore productivity. furthermore, the simulation results showed that augmenting the number of hydraulic fractures from 4 to 15 resulted in a production increase of over twofold. also, it was observed that the production rate increased due to the existence of a positive correlation between the fracture aperture size and the drainage area. the outcome of this research showed the significance of hydraulic fracture characteristics and its ensuing effects on the productivity and feasibility. in order to validate the accuracy of the numerical model, the pressure distribution in a single fractured reservoir was compared with the pressure contour of a phasefield discrete fracture model (pfdfm). the results indicated that the proposed method (fpm) was precise, convergent, and extremely promising.