Transient Pressure Behavior for a Well With a Finite-Conductivity Vertical Fracture epen cinco L. bounauee 4 ‘ABSTRACT A mathematical model was developed to study the trensiont bebavior ofa well with a[inite-conductivity tenical fracture in an infinite slab reseroor, For lalues of dimensionless time of interest. Ip 2 107°, lhe dimensionless wellbore pressure, Puyp. can be correlated by the dimensionless. group, why/3yk, ohare w, hy, end ay are the widib, permecbility, and aif tength of the fracture, respectively, and represents the formation permeability. Results when plotted as « function of Py/p US log tp. give, for large tp. @ L.15I-slope straight Tine; °bence, \senilogaritomic pressure enalysis methods can be applied. When plotted in terms of Toe Poyp ¥ loa tp. family of eurves of character- istic Bape resale A typeccurve matching procedire an be used to enalyze arly time transient pressure data to. obtain the formation end fracture characteristics. INTRODUCTION Hydraulic facturing is an effective technique for increasing the productivity of danaged vells or wells producing fom low permeability fomations. Mach research has been conducted to deteemine the effect of hydraulic fractures on well performance fand transient pressure behavior. The cesults hare been used to improve the design of hydzaulic feactures, Many miethods'"l have been proposed to determine formation properties and fracture charac- {etloics from teanaient pressure and flow fate data. These methods have been based on either analytical ‘or numerical solutions of the wansient flow of fluids toward fctured wells. Recently, Gringstten etal tmede an important coatribution to the analysis of eaasient pressure data of fractured wells. They preseared n type-curve analysis and three basic {olutions: the ininite-teacture conductivity soletion Gero pressure drop along vertical fracture), the tuifoen Hux solution for vertical fractures, and the Sara Recaty ot Peroioon Engineers of ADE Mexico cry, mexteD ‘soiform flux solution for horizontal fractures. “Although the asoumption of an iafiaive fracture conductivity is adequate for some cases, we must consider 8 finite conductivity for large of very low flow capacity ractures. Sawyer and Locke!® studied the transient pressure behavior of finite-conduct verical fractures in gar wells. Their solutions Cnanot be used to analyze transient pressure data because only apecific cases were presented. In thie study, we wanted co prepare gene solutions for the transient pressure behavior of Fell intersected by a finitecconductivity vertical fencoure. The solutions sought should be useful for shoretine or type-curve analysis. We also wanted fo show whether conventional methods could be pplied to analyze transient peessure daca for these conditions. A combination of both methods, as pointed out by Gringarcea ef al,!4 should permit an fexacrdinary confidence level concerning the Snalysis of field data. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND DEVELOPMENT OF FLOW MODELS The ccansient pressure behavior for a fractured well an be studied by analysing the soltion of the Uiitecential equations tat describe thi phenomenon with. proper initial and. boundary. conditions. To aplty the derivation of flow models the following fastnptions are made. 1. Aa isouopic, homogencous, horizontal, ifinite, slab reservoit is bounded by an upper and 2 lower inpemeable strsta. ‘The reservoir has enifom thickness, by pemeablity, ky and porosity, , ‘which are independent of pressure. 2 2, The seservoit contains s slightly compressible {uid of compressibility, c, and viscosiey, By and both properties are conta 3, Fluid is produced tough a vertically feactred voli intersected. by fully penetrating, finite Conductivity fracture of half length xj, width, w, Permcbii, hy, and pcs, These face Shacacterstics are constant. Plaid eatesing. the ‘ellbote comes enly through the fracture. ‘Avsysten with these assumptions is. showa ia Fig. 11 lo addition, we assume the gravity eects are negligible and lz that laminar flow occurs in the “system. Under these conditions, the flowPhenomenca may be described by the diffasiviey equation ia two dinensions.!® To facilitare the solution of this equation, two flow regions will be considered ~ (1) the reservoir and (2) the frcrsre. The facrue is considered as # honogencous, finite, slab, porous medium of height, b, half length, xp and wide, w. Fluid enters the facture at a fate ds 0) per wait of fracture length, and flow across the edge of this porous medium is. negligible because the fracute width is very small compared withthe facture length. The last szrumption allows Us to coasider a Linear flow in the fracture and ‘permits simulation of well production by = uniform ux plane source of band wy located atthe wellbore axis Fig. 2) eady-seate flow in the fracture may be described by the equation, 2, Brey Sette) tere Py yee Oe OS nea ee oD subject tothe following conditions. Initial condition, Pelest=0) = Py, OS XS He reeatasue ouwoanies FIG. 1 — FIITE-CONDUCTIVITY VERTICAL [FRACTURE IN AN INFINITE SLAB RESERVOIR. wana Boundary conditions, ap, | In Eq, 1, 4f.t) is & sousee term that represents the aid flow [from the reservoir to the facture. ‘The solution of Eq. 1 with initial and boundary conditions given by Eq. 2 is expressed in dimen ‘slonless form by this equation acm Peo pty)” a ete ge (x20)? ey Cee TF ge LY 2a - J agp) Gy 12 reer eee eee | ar wee Khleype(xt)] Peppy) ~ Gane qa ak = 9.000264 ke a) the feaceare at location xp and dinensionless tine 1p. This equation was obtained by applying Geen std source functions and the Newnan product method extensively discussed by Gringarten and Ramey 22RESERVOIR FLOW MODEL, The teansient pressure behavior ia the reservoir may be stodied by considering the fruceure as a plane source of height, b, length, 2, and density ¢f.0) (Fig. 3). The dimensionless pressure drop at aay point ia the reservoir may be obtained from che following equsti Gye! Payy Fie vay’) Seay ater = D hese Kb p,-P(%¥st)] Poppy)” Tan? ge ape!) = 29D) and Ey. 5 also was derived ui functions. “To solve Eqs. 3 and 5 simultaneously, continuity between the evo How regions must be established. The dimensionless pressure drop 6p (sp, tp) and flux density 4p (xp, 4p) ia the facture model mest ‘equal the dineasioniess pressure dop Pp (=p: YD» ip) and flux deasity gp (sp, tp) on the plane source of the reservoir model, respectively. That Pept%prtp) perp sty) y bites PLANE SOURCE (FRACTURE win Ig, 3 — RESERVOIR FLO¥ MODEL. and agp ety) = foe “1 0° ion of Eqs. 3, 5, 7, and 8 and use of Poisson's summation formula yields cos (nx,) f Res > > 2 fawn ea ee a where c= tt Sept ~ They sed kbp 420) an Br Eq. 10 is a Fredholm integral equation where the ualaown is tp (2 tp). Coy is the dneasiontess leactare storage capacity, tod n/p is the dimension- less hydraulic diffsiviey of the fracture. METHOD OF SOLUTION Eq. 9 can be solved by discretization ia tine and space 0 that the fracture is divided into 2N equal ssegnents (Fig, 4) and tine is divided into different fntervals, Ie is sesuned that fracture flux has a stepwise distribution in time and space. In other words, the flux densicy gp,.¢ of a fracture interval