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Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356
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Research Article

Numerical simulation on multi-stage fractured horizontal wells in shale gas

reservoirs based on the finite volume method*,**
Chen Xiaofan a, Tang Chao a,*, Du Zhimin a, Tang Liandong a, Wei Jiabao b & Ma Xu c
a
State Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610500, China
b
Hekou Oil Production Plant, Sinopec Shengli Oilfield Company, Dongying, Shandong, 257015, China
c
No.5 Gas Production Plant, PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710000, China
Received 23 October 2018; accepted 25 December 2018
Available online 23 July 2019

Abstract

In order to simulate the flowing of shale gas in multi-scale media, we established a mathematical model for the unsteady seepage of multi-
stage fractured horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs in consideration of the flowing characteristics of shale gas in matrix, natural fractures and
large-scale artificial fractures. Grid division in the simulation region was carried out by means of nonstructural tetrahedral grid. Then, a 3D
numerical model for the seepage of shale gas was established discretely using finite volume method and solved using sequence solution method.
Finally, the production performance of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs and the reservoir pressure distribution were
simulated, and the simulation results were analyzed. And the following research results were obtained. First, the gas production rates of multi-
stage fractured horizontal wells calculated by this newly established numerical simulation method are basically consistent with the calculation
results by the commercial numerical simulation software Eclipse, which proves that this new model is accurate and feasible. Second, the gas
production rates of horizontal wells calculated by the sequential solution method are different from those calculated by the fully implicit solution
method in the early production stages, but as the calculation progresses, both of them tend to be consistent, which further verifies the accuracy of
this new model. Third, desorbed gas plays a supplementary role to reservoir pressure, but its function is limited, and its effect on gas production
is little. As the production goes on, the percentage of desorbed gas increases gradually. Fourth, the key to the stimulation of shale-gas horizontal
wells is to determine the number of fractured sections rationally and create longer artificial fractures. In conclusion, the research results are
conducive to the design of stimulated reservoir volumes (SRVs) of shale gas reservoirs and the prediction of production performance of multi-
stage fractured horizontal wells.
© 2019 Sichuan Petroleum Administration. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Shale gas; Horizontal well; Stimulated reservoir volume; Finite volume method; 3D numerical simulation of seepage; Sequential solution; Fully implicit
solution; Desorbed gas; Gas production rate

0. Introduction

Reasonable consideration of the flow mechanism of shale

*
Project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
“Numerical simulation of fractured reservoirs based on nonstructural hex-
ahedral grid model and parallel computation” (No.: 51474179).
**
This is the English version of the originally published article in Natural
Gas Industry (in Chinese), which can be found at https://doi.org/10.3787/j.issn.
1000-0976.2018.12.009
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: 201511000111@stu.swpu.edu.cn (Tang C.).
Peer review under responsibility of Sichuan Petroleum Administration.
gas in different types of media is of great significance for shale
gas numerical simulation [1]. The existing numerical simula-
tion models of shale gas mainly include dual media, multi
discrete media and equivalent media models. The dual media
model is widely used. Kucuk and Sawyer [2] first studied the
pressure change of shale gas reservoirs based on the dual
porosity model. Subsequently, Bumb and McKee [3] investi-
gated the effect of adsorptionedesorption behavior on the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ngib.2018.12.004
2352-8540/© 2019 Sichuan Petroleum Administration. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
348 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356
transient behavior of unsteady flow by adding additional
adsorption coefficients to Langmuir isothermal adsorption Eq..
However, these researches ignored the diffusion processes at
nanometer and micron scales. Carlson and Mercer [4] dis-
cussed the pressure change of vertical shale gas well by
introducing desorption and diffusion into the dual porosity
model, which, however, underestimated the initial shale gas
productivity, since it failed to consider the slippage effect.
Swami et al. [5] established a dual media model considering
Knudsen diffusion, slippage and adsorptionedesorption pro-
cess, which was validated by laboratory data.
The dual media model is widely used in various commercial
software. However, its inherent defects make it less applicable
to multi-scale and extensive fracture network, even if infilling is
conducted throughout the whole grid or locally. First of all, the
traditional dual media model does not consider the mechanism
of multi-scale flow in shale, so it cannot truly reflect the actual
production performance of shale gas wells [6e8]. Secondly,
complex multi-scale fracture networks in shale reservoirs lead
to severe heterogeneity of permeability field in numerical
simulation. If grid division is carried out for a local fracture
area, a large number of minimized grids will certainly be
generated, resulting in poor or even failed convergence [9,10].
At the same time, the sharp change of fluidity at the
matrixefracture interface also produces a step phenomenon,
and the resulting non-physical oscillation will affect the
calculation accuracy [11,12]. Therefore, the biggest limitation
of dual media model in shale gas simulation is the selection of
appropriate characteristic volume unit. Because of the multi-
scale fractures, there is still much controversy about the exis-
tence and the size of characteristic volume unit in fractured
reservoirs. Some scholars proposed to adopt a multi-media
model to simulate the productivity of shale gas wells [13,14].
Based on the concept of multi-media, Schepers [15] and Deh-
ghanpour et al. [16] established the Darcy flow model which
coupled the adsorptionedesorption process with the flow in the
matrix. Wu et al. [17] and Zhang Liehui et al. [18] divided the
fractures into natural microfractures and induced fractures, and
established a multi-media model of tight fractured reservoir
considering stress sensitivity and slippage, under the conditions
that the slippage effect is considered in the flow of gas in the
matrix and the flow in the fractures is a high-speed non-Darcy
flow; they also compared the difference between the multi-
media model and the dual media model. Aboaba and Cheng
[19] used a linear flow model to describe the typical produc-
tivity curve and production variation of fractured horizontal
wells in shale gas reservoirs, but did not consider the influence
of adsorption and diffusion. Wang et al. [20] established a fluid
flow model to simulate multi-scale fractures of shale by using
embedded discrete fractures to describe large-scale fractures
and continuous models to describe meso- and microfractures.
Fang Wenchao et al. [21] established a multi-scale seepage
fracture model based on two-dimensional volume fracturing,
which considered the compressibility of tight reservoirs and the
non-linear seepage of matrix fluid.
On the basis of previous studies, a mathematical model
describing the complex flow process of shale gas was
established, with matrix-natural microfractures as a dual
media and induced fractures as a discrete media, and
considering the adsorptionedesorption effect of shale gas in
matrix pores. Based on the discretization of finite volume
method, the three-dimensional seepage numerical model of
shale gas was established. Then, with the induced fractures
treated as a two-dimensional planar element entity by
dimension reduction method and the wellbore as a one-
dimensional linear element entity, the models were solved
by way of sequential solution. Finally, the production per-
formance and reservoir pressure distribution of multi-stage
fractured shale gas horizontal wells were simulated. The
study results can be used in volume fracturing design and
production performance prediction of multi-stage fractured
horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs.
1. Mathematical model
1.1. Assumptions
Fig. 1 shows the grid model of a multi-stage fractured
horizontal well in shale reservoir. The whole simulation area
has a length of 1200 m along the x-axis, a width of 800 m
along the y-axis and a height of 100 m along the z-axis. The
length of horizontal section is 700 m, and the spatial config-
uration of multi-stage fractured horizontal well is shown in
Fig. 1-a, with the main induced fracture half-length of 100 m
and the fracture height of 60 m. The length and the height of
Class-I branch fractures are 70 m and 60 m respectively, and
those of Class-II branch fractures are 50 m and 60 m. Induced
fracture is represented by two-dimensional planar element
entity and horizontal section by one-dimensional linear
element entity. In order to simplify the model, we made the
following assumptions. First, the reservoir is a rectangular
closed shale gas reservoir, where the flow is isothermal
seepage of single-phase gas; the effects of gravity, gas slip-
page, Knudsen diffusion and stress sensitivity are ignored.
Second, horizontal wells are located at the center of the gas
reservoir, where the main induced fractures are vertical to and
symmetric with the wellbore, and the gas can only flow into
the wellbore through induced fractures. Third, the seepage
flow of gas in induced fractures and natural microfractures
follows the Darcy's law, and the adsorptionedesorption pro-
cess of shale gas in matrix is described by Langmuir
isothermal adsorption Eq.. Fourth, gas well produces at con-
stant pressure, with the pressure drop in horizontal section
neglected.
1.2. Governing Eq.
1.2.1. Derivation of governing Eq.
According to the state Eq. of real gas, the shale gas density
can be calculated by:
Mg pi
rgi ¼ ð1Þ
ZRT
 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356 349

Fig. 1. Grid model. Note: Points C and F are the centroids of two adjacent governing volumes; similarly, f: the interface (green background); b: the boundary of
interface f (red line); dhf: dimensionless opening of induced fracture; dCf: the position vector of governing volume centroid pointing to the interface centroid, m; Sf:
the outer normal vector of interface f, m2.

  
where, rgi (i ¼ m, f, hf) is the gas density in matrix, natural v rgf 4f rgf Kf

microfractures and induced fractures, kg/m3; similarly, Mg: the þ V,  Vpf  qmf  qhf ¼ 0 ð4Þ
vt mg
gas molar mass, g/mol; pi (i ¼ m, f, hf): the pressure in matrix,
natural microfracture and induced fracture, MPa; Z is the gas where, 4f is the porosity of natural microfractures, dimen-
deviation factor, dimensionless; R: the gas universal constant, sionless; similarly, Kf: the permeability of natural micro-
8314 J/(kmol $ K); T: the gas reservoir temperature, K. fractures, mD; qhf: the channeling rate of microfractures to
According to the law of mass conservation, the continuity induced fractures, kg/(m3 $ s).
Eq. of shale gas in matrix is as follows: Similarly, the continuity Eq. of shale gas in induced frac-

   tures is:
v rgm 4m rgm Km
þ V,  Vpm þ ð1  4m Þqm þ qmf ¼ 0
  
vt mg v rghf 4hf rghf Khf

dhf þ V,  dhf Vphf  qhf  qwell ¼ 0
ð2Þ vt mg
ð5Þ
where, 4m is the matrix porosity, dimensionless; similarly, t:
the time, s; Km: the matrix permeability, mD; mg: the gas where, 4hf is the porosity of induced fracture, dimensionless;
viscosity, mPa $ s; qm: the matrix desorption rate, kg/(m3 $ s); similarly, Khf: the permeability of induced fracture, mD; qwell:
qmf: the matrix channeling rate to microfracture, kg/(m3 $ s). the gas production rate of horizontal well, kg/(m3 $ s).
In Eq. (2), the first item on the left is the fluid mass vari-
ation in the matrix microelement per unit volume, the second 1.2.2. Initial condition
item is the fluid mass flux flowing out of the microelement

surface, the third item is the matrix desorption volume, and the pm ðx; y; z; tÞjt¼0 ¼ pf ðx; y; z; tÞt¼0 ¼
fourth item is the matrix channeling flow to the fracture. It is  ð6Þ
phf ðx; y; z; tÞt¼0 ¼ pinit
assumed that the fluid in a micropore is single-phase gas,
which is composed of adsorbed gas on the surface of shale where, pinit is the original formation pressure, MPa.
matrix and free gas in the pore. Based on Langmuir isothermal
adsorption Eq., the formula for calculating the amount of 1.2.3. Boundary condition
desorbed gas in the matrix is: Let Gout represent the outer boundary of solution domain
  and Gin represent the inner boundary. Assuming that the outer
dVm v r m M g VL p m
qm ¼  ¼ ð3Þ boundary of the model is a closed boundary and the well
dt vt Vstd pL þ pm
produces at constant pressure, the boundary condition is:
where, Vm is the amount of adsorbed gas per unit volume, m3; 8
>
> 
similarly, Vstd: the gas molar volume under standard condi- < vp ¼ 0
>
tions, m3/mol; VL: the Langmuir volume, m3/kg; pL: the vn Gout ð7Þ
Langmuir pressure, MPa. >
>
>
: pjGin ¼ pwf
The continuity Eq. of shale gas in microfractures is:
350 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356

where, vn is the element length in the tangent direction of According to Eq. (9), for any governing volume, the change
boundary, m; pwf is the bottomhole flow pressure, MPa. of gas mass flow in a matrix system is equal to the sum of the
amount of gas flowing in and out of the matrix, the desorbed
2. Model discretization and solution gas volume in matrix and the matrix-microfracture channeling
flow during a certain period, which ensures that the model still
2.1. Discretization in solution domain obeys the law of mass conservation in any local grid.
The unsteady flow term in Eq. (9) can be approximately
In order to simplify the calculation procedures, the tetra- expressed as:
hedral grid and Delaunay triangular grid were used for grid Z  
v Mg pm 4m VC 4m Mg vpm
division of the matrix-microfracture and the induced fracture, dVz ð10Þ
respectively, because the geometric center of the tetrahedral vt ZRT ZRT vt
VC
grid coincides with the centroid. Other types of grids need
recalculating the centroid of the governing volume, which is According to the divergence theorem, the volume integral is
not detailed here. Firstly, the matrix-microfracture system is transformed into the area integral, and the convection term in
represented by tetrahedron grid and considered as the Eq. (9) can be written as:
continuous media (Fig. 1-b). The induced fracture is treated as Z   I  
Mg pm Km M g pm K m
two-dimensional plane after dimension reduction and repre- V, Vpm dV ¼ Vpm ,n dS ð11Þ
ZRTmg ZRTmg
sented by Delaunay triangular interface between tetrahedron VC vVC
grids (Fig. 1-c). Dimension reduction is the key to improving
the convergence of multi-scale simulation calculation. If the where, dS is the area micro-element on vVC, m2; n is the outer
fracture is considered as three-dimensional plane in the grid normal vector of governing volume, dimensionless.
system, it is necessary to conduct tetrahedral grid division in Further, the surface integral of the governing volume VC is
the fracture space with small opening, and then a large number written in the form of the sum of each flux area integral:
of minimized grids are formed, resulting in the failure of the I  
M g pm K m
subsequent solution [22]. The study of Juanes et al. [23] shows Vpm ,n dS ¼
that the calculation convergence is significantly improved ZRTmg
vVC
ð12Þ
X Z Mg pm Km 

when the fractures are considered as two-dimensional rather

than three-dimensional. The governing volume units are Vpm ,n dS
determined by tetrahedrons obtained from grid division SC
ZRTmg
f
(Fig. 1-c), which can ensure the governing volume units cover
the whole study area without overlapping each other. Then, the where, SC represents all the interfaces that constitute the
whole solution region Gd is divided into two sub-domains, Gm-f governing volume VC. Taking Fig. 1-c as an example, the
and Ghf, representing the matrix-microfracture region and the governing volume VC consists of four triangular interfaces.
induced fracture region respectively. According to the con- Further, from the trapezoidal integral formula, the area
tinuum field theory, the integral form of the flow governing integral on the interface f can be written as:
Eq. (FGE) in the whole simulation region is as follows: Z  
Mg pm Km Mg pm Km
∭ FGEdGd ¼ ∭ FGEdGmf þ dhf ∭ FGEdGhf ð8Þ Vpm ,n dS ¼ Vpm Sf ð13Þ
ZRTmg ZRTmg
Gd Gmf Ghf f

where,
R Sf is the outer normal vector of the interface f, and Sf ¼
2.2. Spatial discretization ndS,m2.
f Therefore, the convection term in Eq. (9) can be written as:

In this section, the flow Eq. of matrix system is taken as an Z   XMg pm 

example to illustrate the solution method in tetrahedral grid. Mg pm Km
V, Vpm dV ¼ lm Vpm Sf ð14Þ
The solution method of microfractures is similar to that of ZRTmg SC
ZRT
VC
induced fractures. Firstly, Eqs. (1) and (3) are substituted into
Eq. (2) and integrated within the governing volume, i.e. where, lm denotes the gas fluidity in the matrix, m2/(mPa $ s).
Z   Z   Similarly, the finite volume formula of source sink term is
v M g p m 4m M g pm K m
dV  V, Vpm dVþ obtained:
vt ZRT ZRTmg
Z
VC VC
ð9Þ    
Z ð1  4m Þqm þ qmf dV ¼ VC ð1  4m Þqm þ qmf ð15Þ
 
ð1  4m Þqm þ qmf dV ¼ 0 VC
VC
The first item on the right side of Eq. (15) is the desorbed
gas volume of governing volume, and the second item is the
where, VC is the governing volume with C as the centroid; dV
matrix-microfracture channeling flow volume. Since the
is the micro-element volume of the governing volume, m3.
 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356 351

desorbed gas volume is a function of time, the finite volume used for iterative solution. pkþ1
hf and pkþ1
m are substituted into
discrete format of the flow Eq. in the matrix system can be the flow Eq. of microfracture to solve the fracture pressure
rewritten as follows according to Eq. (3): explicitly.

VC 4 m M g dVm vpm  
 VC ð1  4m Þ  VC 4f Mg pkþ1  pkf X Mg pkf k k
ZRT dpm vt
f
 l Vp Sf 
ZRT Dt ZRT f f
XMg pm  ð16Þ ð21Þ
SC
h    i
lm Vpm Sf þ VC qmf ¼ 0
SC
ZRT m  pf þ lf phf  pf
VC lkm pkþ1 k k kþ1 k
¼0
Similarly, the discrete format of flow Eq. in microfractures
and induced fractures can be obtained as:
  2.4. Approximate calculation of pressure gradient
VC 4f Mg vpf X Mg pf

 lf Vpf Sf  VC qmf  qhf ¼ 0 ð17Þ
ZRT vt SC
ZRT Obviously, in order to solve Eqs. (19)e(21), it is necessary
to calculate the change of pressure gradient in governing
X 
Sf 4hf Mg vphf volume. In this paper, a method based on GreeneGauss the-
dhf  orem was proposed. This method is relatively simple and
SCF
ZRT vt
ð18Þ suitable for grids (structure/non-structure, orthogonal/non-
XXMg phf 

 orthogonal) with various geometric structures [24,25]. The
dhf lhf Vphf lb  dhf VC qhf  qwell ¼ 0
SC b
ZRT average pressure gradient VpC in the governing volume with
the volume of VC and the centroid of C is calculated as
where, lf and lhf represent the gas fluidity in natural micro- follows:
fractures and induced fractures, m2/(mPa $ s); similarly, SCF: Z
the interface of governing volume VC and large-scale frac- 1
VpC ¼ VpdV ð22Þ
tures; b: all boundaries constituting the interface f; lb: Rthe outer VC
VC
normal vector of vertical boundary b, in which lb ¼ ndl,m2,
b According to the divergence theorem, volume integral is
and l is the length of boundary b (2D interface thickness is 1). transformed into area integral.

2.3. Sequential solution Z

1
VpC ¼ ðp,nÞdS ð23Þ
VC
The sequential solution method is to solve a certain variable vVC
at each time step, and then substitute other variable expres-
For discrete interfaces, Eq. (23) can be written as follows:
sions for iterative solution. It ensures the calculated amount is
less than that of the whole solution method at each time step. XZ
Assuming that the current time step is k, all variables related to VpC VC ¼ ðp,nÞdS ð24Þ
hydraulic fracturing pressure and matrix pressure are implic- SC
f
itly solved by using the (kþ1) time step, then Eqs. (16) and
Then, the surface integral along the governing volume is
(18) can be written as:
approximately expressed as the interpolation at the surface

VC 4 m M g m  pm
dVm pkþ1 k centroid multiplied by the surface vector through integral
 VC ð1  4m Þ  mean value theorem.
ZRT dpm Dt
ð19Þ
XMg pkþ1    1 X
m
l Vp
k kþ1
Sf þ VC lm pm  pf ¼ 0
k kþ1 k
VpC ¼ p Sf ð25Þ
SC
ZRT m m VC S C f
X  According to Eq. (25), in order to calculate the pressure
Sf 4hf Mg pkþ1hf  phf
k
dhf  gradient in the governing volume, it is necessary to know the
SCF
ZRT Dt surface vector Sf of the governing volume first. The pressure pf
XXMg pkþ1  on interface f can be obtained by the interpolation of the
dhf hf
l Vp
k kþ1
lb  ð20Þ pressure pC at the centroid of the governing volume and the
SC bf
ZRT hf hf pressure pF at the centroid of adjacent governing volume, and
  the interpolation format is as follows:
dhf VC lkf pkf  phf
kþ1
¼ dhf VC qkwell
It is noted that pf in Eqs. (19) and (20) uses the k time step, pf ¼ gF pF þ gC pC ð26Þ
which is known. There are unknown variables phf and pm in
two Eqs.. Therefore, the NewtoneRaphson method can be where, gC and gF are the weights of VC and VF for governing
volume, and the formulas are as follows:
352 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356

VC where, rC and rF are the position vectors of centroids C and F,

gF ¼
VC þ VF m; dCF is the distance between centroids C and F of adjacent
VF governing volume, m.
gC ¼ ¼ 1  gF Therefore, in order to linearize the flux in non-orthogonal
VC þ VF
grids, the surface vector Sf is the sum of Ef and Tf, i.e.
Considering that the two adjacent governing volumes (the
grid numbers are j and k respectively), the surface vector Sf Sf ¼ Ef þ T f ð29Þ
cannot be outward at the same time, so the direction of the
surface vector defined for a particular grid is determined by the where, Ef is direction along centroids C and F connection, m2;
grid number of the governing volume, and the governing Tf is the non-orthogonal component of Sf, m2, and can be
volume with smaller number always point to the larger one, expressed through the flux of interface f:
then Eq. (25) is rewritten as: ðVpÞf Sf ¼ ðVpÞf Ef þ ðVpÞf T f
8
> 1X vp
>
>  p Sf j > k ¼ Ef þ ðVpÞf T f
>
> ð30Þ
< Vk SC f ve f
Vpk ¼ ð27Þ pF  pC
>
>
> 1X ¼ Ef þ ðVpÞf T f
>
> p Sf j < k dCF
: Vk S f
C There are three methods to calculate vector Ef and Tf (Table
1).
The results obtained by the above three decomposition
2.5. Surface vector processing in non-orthogonal grid methods all meet the need of diffusion flux calculation in Eq.
(7). The main differences are mainly reflected in the accuracy
Because of the unstructured grids used in this paper, the and stability of non-orthogonal grid computing. According to
grids are often non-orthogonal. That is to say, the surface previous studies, even in highly non-orthogonal grids, the
vector Sf of governing volume is not collinear with the vector overrelaxation correction method can ensure the stability of
CF connecting the governing volume centroid, i.e. the normal flux calculation [24,25,30,31].
vector of the governing volume surface is not consistent with
the direction of fluid velocity (pressure gradient). In this case, 2.6. Model validation
because there is a component perpendicular to the vector, the
pressure gradient of the governing volume cannot be written in 2.6.1. Model comparison and validation
the form of f ( pC, pF) [26e29]. In order to verify the validity of the finite volume method,
e is defined as the unit vector along the direction of the we established a rectangular closed gas reservoir model. The
centroids C and F connection, m, and the pressure gradient effect of viscous flow is only considered in the matrix and
along the e direction can be expressed as: microfractures, while the adsorptionedesorption mechanism
vp pF  pC pF  pC
is neglected. Moreover, the induced fracture is regarded as an
ðVp,eÞf ¼ ¼ ¼ ð28Þ infinite conductive fracture. The model parameters are shown
ve f krF  rC k dCF
in Table 2. The simulation results are compared with those

Table 1
Decomposition of governing volume surface vector in non-orthogonal grids.
Method Schematic diagram Vector
Ef Tf
Minimum correction Ef ¼ ðeSf Þe ¼ ðSf cos qÞe Tf ¼ ðn  e cos qÞSf

Orthogonal correction Ef ¼ Sf e T f ¼ ðn  eÞSf

   
Sf 1
Overrelaxation correction Ef ¼ e Tf ¼ n e Sf
cos q cos q

Note: q is the angle between Ef and Sf

 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356 353

Table 2 2600 kg/m3, methane molar mass is 16 g/mol, the molar

Numerical simulation parameters for multi-stage fractured horizontal well volume of shale gas under standard conditions is 0.0224 m3/
[32].
mol, the gas viscosity is 1.85  102 mPa s, and the bot-
Parameter Value tomhole flowing pressure is 5 MPa. According to the calcu-
Model size/m 2000  2000  50 lation using Eclipse and CMG, the gas deviation factor varies
Initial formation pressure/MPa 10 between 0.9089 and 0.9828 in the process of pressure change
Horizontal section length of horizontal wells/m 800
Hole radius/m 0.1
by the above-mentioned model. The gas deviation factor is
Matrix permeability/mD 1  104 rewritten into the form of pressure function by polynomial
Matrix porosity 5% fitting. The spatial configuration of multi-stage fractured hor-
Natural fracture opening/mm 5 izontal wells is shown in Fig. 1-a, where the conductivity of
Linear density of natural fracture/m 0.1 the main induced fracture is 15 D $ cm, that of the Class-I
Natural fracture permeability/mD 0.1
Natural fracture porosity 0.005
branch fracture is 10 D $ cm, and that of the Class-II branch
Number of induced fractures 15 fracture is 7 D $ cm.
Induced fracture half length/m 100
Induced fracture spacing/m 50 3.2. Analysis of simulation results
Bottomhole pressure/MPa 1
3.2.1. Effect of Langmuir volume
Based on physical model parameters, the shale gas pro-
duction of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells was simu-
calculated by Eclipse, a commercial simulation software for lated. As shown in Fig. 4, in the first five years, reservoir
oil and gas reservoirs. As shown in Fig. 2, the gas production pressure drop mainly occurs in the area with fracturing, while
of horizontal wells calculated by the proposed model is basi- reservoir pressure changes slightly in the area without frac-
cally the same as that calculated by Eclipse, which indicates turing. This indicates that the gas produced in this stage is
that the numerical calculation method adopted in this paper is mainly free gas and desorbed gas in the stimulated area.
correct and feasible. Fig. 5 shows the variation curves of average formation
As shown in Fig. 2, there are some errors between the pressure, desorbed gas volume, gas production and desorbed
numerical solution and commercial software calculation re- gas contribution ratio corresponding to different Langmuir
sults in the early stage because of the inadequate accuracy of volumes. It can be seen that desorbed gas increases formation
the grid near the fracture (maximum element step is 15 m, pressure, but has little effect on gas production. With the
minimum element step is 3 m, maximum element increment production time, the absolute desorbed gas volume decreases
rate is 1.2, element curvature factor is 0.5, narrow area reso- gradually, but the proportion of desorbed gas in gas production
lution is 0.8). The grid of the induced fracture can be refined to increases gradually.
improve the calculate accuracy.
3.2.2. Effect of fracture morphology
2.6.2. Comparisons of solution methods By changing the number of fracturing stages, the influence
Based on the above model, different methods (sequential of fracture morphology on shale gas production in horizontal
solution method and full implicit solution method) were used wells was further studied. The simulation results show that, in
to calculate the gas production. The results show that the the 5th year of production, the pressure drop area under the
difference is mainly in the early stage of production. The three-stage fracturing mode is close to that under the four-
instantaneous gas production calculated by the sequential so- stage fracturing mode (Fig. 6). The initial gas production
lution method and the full implicit solution method are under the four-stage fracturing mode (64  104 m3/d) is 1.37
195  104 m3/d and 167  104 m3/d, respectively. However, in times that in the three-stage fracturing mode (47  104 m3/d),
further calculation, the gas production calculated by these two
methods tends to converge rapidly (Fig. 3), which further
verifies the correctness of the model.

3. Example simulation

3.1. Parameter preset

According to Reference [1], a multi-stage fractured hori-

zontal well model of shale gas was established. The original
formation pressure is 30 MPa, formation temperature is
343.15 K, matrix porosity is 8%, matrix permeability is 0.003
mD, natural microfracture porosity is 0.3%, natural micro-
fracture permeability is 0.5 mD, Langmuir volume is
4  103 m3/kg, Langmuir pressure is 5 MPa, shale density is Fig. 2. Comparison of results obtained by the proposed method and Eclipse.
354 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356

Fig. 3. Comparison of the calculation results with different methods.

Fig. 4. Formation pressure distribution at different production times.

Fig. 5. Production performance prediction of the simulated horizontal wells with different Langmuir volumes.
 Chen XF et al. / Natural Gas Industry B 6 (2019) 347e356
Fig. 6. Formation pressure distribution of the simulated horizontal well with different fracturing stages at the 5th year of production.
Fig. 7. Production curves of the simulated horizontal shale gas well with different fracturing stages.
but the decline of gas production in the four-stage fracturing
mode is faster. After the 5th year, the gas production of hor-
izontal wells in the two fracturing modes is basically the same,
and the cumulative gas production curves at this stage are
parallel (Fig. 7). Therefore, the effect of increasing the number
of fractured stages on cumulative gas production is not sig-
nificant. It is necessary to expand the stimulated reservoir
volume by increasing the half-length of fractures. Determining
the reasonable number of fractured stages and obtaining longer
induced fractures are essential in the stimulation of horizontal
shale gas wells.
4. Conclusions
1) The gas production of multi-stage fractured horizontal
wells calculated by the model proposed in this paper is
basically consistent with that calculated by Eclipse. This
indicates that the proposed numerical calculation
method is correct and feasible. The correctness of the
model is further verified by comparing the sequential
solution method with the full implicit solution method.
2) Desorbed gas has a complementary effect on formation
pressure but in a limited range, and has little effect on
gas production. With the extension of production time,
the proportion of desorbed gas in gas production in-
creases gradually.
3) Determining the reasonable number of fractured stages
and obtaining longer induced fractures are essential in
the stimulation of horizontal shale gas wells.
355
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest.
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