Short Courses

Short Course #1
Title: Shale Gas GeoEngineering
Instructor: Maurice Dusseault, Professor, Geological Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Venue: The Westin Galleria Houston
Date:  Two Day Course: Saturday, 25 June 2016; 8:30 am – 5:00 pm; Sunday, 26 June 2016; 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Cost: $800 Includes complete course materials, coffee and refreshments; Student Fee:  $250

Fundamental to the success of a shale gas project is knowing the quality and characteristics of the resource, choosing the best development approach, and evaluating the results in a science and economics framework. This two-day short course will cover the geoscience foundation of shale gas reservoir knowledge, giving the participant a broad knowledge of the geoscience models, essential information that must be collected, and the methods of collecting it to yield valuable engineering information. Then, the course will focus on developing a strong qualitative and semi-quantitative understanding of hydraulic fracturing mechanisms in naturally fractured rocks. Because the basis of a successful stimulation design is understanding rock mechanics and hydraulics, this course will focus on the geomechanics aspects of fracturing using injection fluids such as slickwater or viscosified fluids to carry proppants.

CLICK HERE to download detailed short course information, agenda, and biographical information.

Short Course #2
Title: Modeling of Coupled Hydro-Mechanical Deformation and Fracturing Processes in Geomechanics
Instructor: Dr. Omid Mahabadi and Dr. Andrea Lisjak, Geomechanica Inc.
Venue: The Westin Galleria Houston
Date: Sunday, 26 June 2016; 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Cost: $400 Includes lunch/refreshments, electronic copies of the course slides, electronic and hard copies of the Irazu software manual and tutorials, and a demo version of the Irazu Graphical User Interface software.

Description: The hybrid finite-discrete element method (FDEM) is an explicit numerical approach that combines continuum mechanics principles (FEM) with discrete element algorithms (DEM) to simulate multiple interacting deformable and fracturing bodies. With its ability to qualitatively and quantitatively reproduce failure processes in brittle materials, FDEM is gaining increasing acceptance in civil, mining, geological, and petroleum engineering applications, where fracture and fragmentation processes are key to fully understanding the rock mass behaviour. Recently, Geomechanica’s FDEM software, Irazu, has been enhanced with full hydro-mechanical (H-M) coupling to model fluid flow and fluid-induced fracturing in unconventional plays.

This one-day course will combine theoretical lectures on the fundamental principles of FDEM with practical modeling sessions where participants will be guided through several simulation cases. The course will start with a general introduction to the FDEM modelling philosophy and its application to engineering geology, rock mechanics, and geophysics problems. After a quick review of the basic algorithms, such as finite element deformation, contact detection, and contact interaction, the fracture model will be discussed in more depth. More advanced features of Irazu, including: in-situ stress initialization, rock excavation, and the incorporation of rock-reinforcement and Discrete Fracture Networks (DFNs), and hydro-mechanical coupling will also be introduced. In the second part of the course, participants will gain valuable hands-on experience through a series of practical modelling exercises using Geomechanica’s Irazu software to model practical H-M-coupled problems in oil & gas, geothermal, and civil engineering applications.

Highlights of this hands-on short course include:

• Numerical modeling of complex, non-linear, coupled rock engineering/geomechanics problems;
• Rock fracture and fragmentation;
• Fluid flow and fluid-induced fracturing in unconventional plays;
• Fundamental principles of the state-of-the-art Irazu finite-discrete element software; and
• Hands-on Irazu

CLICK HERE to download short course information.

CLICK HERE to download HF GIF file.

Short course at Rock Mechanics Symposium in Minneapolis in 2014. Photo by Hill Montague for ARMA.