A Study on Dynamics of Cracks in Three Dimensions for Estimating Reservoir Cracks in EGS
- Key words
- Enhanced Geothermal Systems; EGS, HDR, HWR, characterization, fracture
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 2006
- Session
- HDR/EGS; characterization; fracture
- Language
- English
Abstract
Preliminary results are presented for analyzing dynamics of genuine 3D reservoir cracks, emphasizing the role of an approach that assumes axisymmetric deformation of an axisymmetric crack, in characterization of reservoir cracks by active acoustic method. Fluid-filled penny shaped and elliptical cracks are employed and the dynamics of the cracks are analyzed by using BIEM (Boundary Integral Equation Method) defined in the Laplace space. It is revealed that the axisymmetric modes of oscillation are predominant and, thus, axisymmetric approach is likely to provide a fairly good approximation in the characterization. On contrary to this, an approach based on 2D crack model is found to be a very poor approximation and may result in a gross misunderstanding of the subsurface settings.
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