Geomechanical Model of Oil Sands

Abstract Oil sands geomechanics plays an important role in the oil sands recovery processes, such as surface mining, cyclic steam stimulation and SAGD, which are widely applied in the development of oil sands resources in Alberta, Canada. Coupled reservoir geomechanical simulation techniques have been developed and used for the design of in situ recovery processes, particularly for SAGD. Thus, a realistic geomechanical model of oil sands material is a critical component in these reservoir geomechanical simulations. This paper presents the development of an oil sands model based on the analysis of laboratory testing results provided by different researchers, including Oldakowski, Samieh and Wong, and Touhidi-Baghni. On the basis of this analysis, 25 numerical experiments were conducted to match these laboratory tests, including the stress paths, as those applied in the laboratory experiments. Consequently, a comprehensive geomechanical model of oil sands material was established based on these numerical experiments. The proposed strain softening model parameters, such as the modulus of elasticity, peak and post-peak friction angle, and dilation angle, can be applied in the coupled reservoir geomechanical simulations of thermal recovery processes, including the SAGD process.