Abstract:
High-pressure water injection in fractured tight reservoirs readily induces dynamic fracture propagation, which in severe cases may trigger water flooding and forced shutdown in production wells. Research on the expansion mechanism and control methods of waterflood induced fractures, and precise control of fracture behavior and flow field distribution can delay well waterflooding and enhance waterflood development efficiency. A coupled water injection-induced fracture hydraulic-mechanical-damage model for fractured tight reservoirs is developed by introducing strain-related damage variables, and a nodal unit that takes thickness variation into account is used to characterize the opening and closing of natural fractures. The bridge with damage variable as the key physical parameter is used to represent the interaction effect between the new and natural fractures. The favorable effect of inducing moderate fracture expansion to increase matrix sweep volume is demonstrated, and numerical simulations show that early implementation of asynchronous injection in fractured tight reservoirs can inhibit well flooding and significantly increase recovery rate. The results show that (1) The dynamic propagation of induced fractures is jointly controlled by the angle between injection-production orientations and the development degree of natural fractures. (2) The longer the injection shut-in period, the more obvious the competition extension phenomenon between the primary and secondary fractures, and easy to activate the natural fractures in the near-well zone. (3) The simulation considering fracture closure has a slower and smaller pressure landing in the well shut-in phase, and a faster and larger pressure recovery after reinjection. (4) Cyclic water injection improves near-well matrix permeability through repeated fracture opening-closure cycles, proving an effective dynamic fracture control method. The research results have developed a nonlinear seepage model of hydraulic-mechanical-damage coupling in fractured reservoirs, providing both theoretical significance and practical value for dynamic fracture management and enhanced waterflood recovery in fractured tight oil reservoirs.