Seismic Monitoring Analogs for Hydrothermal Processes in Controlled Fracture Networks
Description:
Characterizing and monitoring injection and production in fracture-dominated energy and storage reservoirs (such as for geothermal, hydrogen, carbon, critical minerals, etc) is a key scientific challenge for the energy transition and achieving climate goals. Seismic monitoring tools, especially ambient noise analysis, are one of the chief probes of coupled hydro-thermal-mechanical processes occurring within a volume of rock. The seismic wave features such as velocities and attenuation can capture and encode information about the effective properties of the reservoir, especially changes in the coda waves, which best probe the entire rock mass. However, the quantitative relationships between the fluid flow in a fractured rock volume, the effective transport properties of that volume along with the fluid saturation state, and the associated seismic wave characteristics have not been fully developed. To bridge this gap, we design a new experiment involving seismo-acoustic monitoring of a laboratory-scale hydrothermal flow system within a transparent, 3D-printed fracture network. Utilizing the ability to create controlled analog fracture networks, we inject cold fluids (at a range of inlet pressures/flow rates) into the system and use active acoustics, optical & thermal imagery to assess the seismic signatures of hydro-thermal-mechanical interactions as well as the saturation state of the fracture network. The fracture networks remain nominally static, while the fracture apertures may fluctuate in response to fluid pressure variations influenced by temperature changes. Our results provide both a physical understanding and seismo-acoustic calibration to monitor the interaction between hydrothermal flow and fracture networks during fluid circulation for the field seismic monitoring. These results will also serve as baselines for future studies on the brittle-ductile transition in analog fractured reservoirs.
Session: Seismology for the Energy Transition [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/16/2025
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: Congcong
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Poster Number: 137
Authors
Congcong Yuan Presenting Author Corresponding Author cy547@cornell.edu Cornell University |
Seth Saltiel sas697@cornell.edu Cornell University |
Tushar Mittal tmittal@psu.edu Pennsylvania State University |
Anna Barth anna@straboengineering.com Strabo Engineering Inc. |
Eric Beaucé ebeauce@ldeo.columbia.edu Columbia University |
Benjamin Holtzman benh@mit.edu Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
|
|
|
Seismic Monitoring Analogs for Hydrothermal Processes in Controlled Fracture Networks
Category
Seismology for the Energy Transition