An Innovative Procedure to Compute Equivalent Block Size in a Dual-Porosity Model

In recent years, new techniques and methods have been developed to characterize the natural fracturing at various field scale and integrate fractured reservoir characterization data into 3D geometrical models of fracture networks. However, 3D images of fractured reservoir are not directly usable as a reservoir simulation input. Representing the fracture network in reservoir flow simulators was always considered unrealistic because of the partial knowledge of this network and because of numerical limitations. Actually, the Warren & Root model remains the basis for any dual porosity simulator. In this model, the fractured reservoir is represented as an array of numerical parallelepipedic matrix blocks separated by uniform orthogonal fractures.