Reservoir Geomechanics
1. When exactly, we are forced to consider a petroleum reservoir to be a deformable body?
OR
Are we supposed to consider a petroleum reservoir, by default, a deformable body?
2. When do we need to consider Cauchy stress tensor, whereby the stress at any point in a petroleum reservoir is assumed to behave as a continuum; and defined by nine components of a second-order tensor?
Can we afford to ignore even such small-scale deformations in a petroleum reservoir?
Don’t we ever experience a large-scale finite deformations in a petroleum reservoir (1st and 2nd Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensors; Biot stress tensor; Kirchhoff stress tensor)?
3. If we consider a petroleum reservoir to be a deformable body, then, are we considering only those stresses that are produced by deformation of reservoir solid grains?
If so, how exactly, will we be able to measure the average force per unit area of a solid grain surface within this deformable petroleum reservoir?
How exactly, are we supposed to conceptualize and measure the intensity of internal forces acting between particles of solid rock grains across imaginary internal surfaces in a petroleum reservoir when the reservoir pressure remains below and above bubble point pressure?
Feasible to capture the way, the internal forces are produced between the solid rock grains in a petroleum reservoir as a reaction to external forces applied on the reservoir body?
4. Since, stress is not uniformly distributed over the entire reservoir cross-section, to what extent, the stress at a given point
(a) nearer to the production well;
(b) far away from the production well;
(c) at the top of the reservoir for a given cross section; and
(d) at the bottom of a reservoir for a given cross section –
would remain to be different from the average stress over the entire reservoir?
Are we measuring stress over a given area; or, @ a specific point in a real field scenario?
5. Whether the way, we decompose stress vector into normal stress and shear stress (as a function of CSA) would remain to be the same both in cartesian and radial coordinates in the vicinity of a production well with reference to a real field scenario?
6. How easy to figure out principal planes (planes encompassing the stressed reservoir body) with principal directions (normal vectors): (a) where the corresponding stress vector remains perpendicular to the plane; and (b) where there are no more normal shear stresses @ lab-scale?
Do we need to identify the position of principal surfaces of stress in a petroleum reservoir following hydrocarbon production?
Whether the orientation of secondary porosity (fractures) upon reservoir production could be of any concern?
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