COAL SEAM GAS, EARTHQUAKES AND WATER

Beck Engineering undertakes fully coupled simulation of injection and extraction of gas and water.
As the fluid and rock mechanics parts of our models are solved together, we can simulate deformation and stress changes that lead to seismicity, as well as more reliably simulate the gas and water flows.

Figure A: 3d numerical model of fluid extraction, showing flows and simulated fault slip. Most numerical simulations of fluid or gas extraction assume that all flow is through the rock mass, and ignore the effects of structure on flow and the impacts of induced rock mass damage on flow. This model is unique because it captures these essential impacts

Our models are state of the art:

• 3d
• Simulate flow on structure
• Capture the effects of stress change and induced damage on conductivity and sorption (resistance to flow, and the rate at which the fluid is ‘given up’).
• Field scale
• High resolution enabling rapid, direct calibration using recovery, flow, induced seismicity, subsidence and other physical measurements

For a more detailed summary of simulation of coal seam gas extraction to better manage induced seismicity, contact Beck Engineering or download a fact sheet .