We present a computational framework for fast monitoring of fault stability and ground deformation in multiphase geomechanics and demonstrate its efficacy for a carbon sequestration--enhanced oil recovery case study. The staggered solution algorithm for the coupled problem is augmented with a feature that allows for the flow and geomechanics sub-problems to be solved on different unstructured tetrahedral grids. For the field scale problem, the geomechanics grid goes all the way to the free surface while the flow grid is truncated at a depth above which the layers are impermeable. This framework avoids the unnecessary computational burden associated with equilibrating the initial pressure solution in the overburden, allows for a study of the critical interaction between overburden and faults, allows for fast renditions of ground deformation, and allows a choice of resolution for the flow and geomechanics grids independently to capture disparate length scales of the underlying physics.
Scaling carbon sequestration phenomena to the earth's surface