Modeling Fracture Permeability Around a Well During Depletion

Modeling fracture permeability around a well during depletion is the subject of this paper. The normal closure behavior of fractures around a well during various stages of depletion has a major influence on the changes in fracture permeability and subsequent well production. Methods are described for providing a practical approach for obtaining fracture parameters to model these permeability changes. The parameters of interest include: the fracture roughness coefficient, the wall strength, and the overburden and horizontal stresses around the fracture. The model relates the fracture aperture to the effective normal stress and subsequently computes the resulting permeability for changes in pore pressure.