Discontinuity Stability Analysis

Petrel* 2019.1

User Guide
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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1

Pre-processing .............................................................................................................................. 2

Converting results to grid properties ........................................................................................... 2

Stress tensor input recognition ................................................................................................... 3

Running DSA ................................................................................................................................ 4

Stress field input ........................................................................................................................ 4

User input .............................................................................................................................. 4
VISAGE results ...................................................................................................................... 5
Discontinuity input...................................................................................................................... 6
Analysis Options ........................................................................................................................ 7
Hints .......................................................................................................................................... 8

DSA Results .................................................................................................................................. 9

Visualizing results of fault surfaces ............................................................................................ 9

Visualizing results of fracture networks .................................................................................... 10
Visualizing grid property results ............................................................................................... 11
Visualizing results in ‘Fault/Fracture Stability Analysis Window’ ................................................ 12
Visualizing average stress state ............................................................................................... 13

Final Remarks ............................................................................................................................. 14

Help and Support ........................................................................................................................ 14

User Guide

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Introduction
Understanding the stress state acting on faults and fractures is required to characterize their
mechanical behaviour during field development, which might also impact their hydraulic behaviour.
A pre-existing discontinuity, i.e. fault or fracture, will reactivate when the critical shear stress on the
fault/fracture plane is exceeded under a certain stress state, i.e. slippage occurs along the failure
plane. The discontinuity is then referred to as unstable. If the critical shear stress on the
discontinuity plane is not exceeded, the discontinuity is referred to as stable under the current
stress state.
The Discontinuity Stability Analysis (DSA) plug-in allows analysis of the stability of faults and
fractures within the Petrel platform based on 3D and time-lapse geomechanical simulations
performed by the VISAGE simulator.
Aside from using a 3D tensorial in-situ stress field calculated by VISAGE, a uniform stress field can
also be manually defined by the user and used as input for the stability analysis.
Fault and fracture stability is calculated based on the Mohr-Coulomb criterion considering the
friction angle and cohesion of the discontinuity, its dip angle and dip azimuth, and the 3D stress
field provided (user-defined or from VISAGE) (Figure 1).
DSA thus accounts for the relative orientation between the 3D in-situ stresses and the orientation
of the fault or fracture.

Figure 1. DSA results showing the Slip Tolerance for all possible fault/fracture orientations in 3D under a given stress state.

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User Guide

Pre-processing

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3D stress fields computed by VISAGE describe the in-situ stress state in a reservoir more
accurately than a uniform stress field defined by constant gradients. If such pre-existing simulation
results shall be used as stress input for the Discontinuity Stability Analysis, some pre-processing
steps are required in order to make the stress tensor visible as input for the DSA plug-in.

Converting results to grid properties

If the VISAGE results of a previously solved geomechanical model are available in the Petrel
project and shall be used for stress input, the stresses have to be converted from simulation
results in the ‘Results’ pane to grid properties in the ‘Models’ pane (Figure 2).
This is done by opening a 3D window (only to activate case selection), selecting the VISAGE case
of choice, going to the ‘Results’ pane, right-clicking on any ‘Effective stress’ result and selecting
‘Convert to grid property’. This opens a window in which the appropriate case can be selected (or
multiple if desired), as well as the results to be converted and for all time steps of interest.
In order to run DSA, all effective stress tensor components (EFFSTRXX, EFFSTRYY, EFFSTRZZ,
EFFSTRXY, EFFSTRYZ, EFFSTRZX) and the reservoir pressure (PRESSURE) have to be
converted for all desired time steps.
After pressing ‘Apply’ or ‘OK’, the results are converted to grid properties and are stored in a
top-level folder named after the case, located in the ‘Properties’ section of the corresponding grid.

1. Go to the ‘Results’ pane

2. Right-click on any result
3. ‘Convert to 3D grid property’

7. Case folder in
‘Models’ pane
3. Select case

4. Select: 5. Select time steps

Effective stresses
(all tensor components)
Reservoir pressure

6. Apply / OK

Figure 2. Summary of work steps for converting simulation results to grid properties. In order to select results, the case has to be active.

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User Guide

Stress tensor input recognition

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If any previously computed tensorial stress field shall be used as input for the DSA plug-in
– for example provided by a VISAGE simulation – the following arrays are required:
― All effective stress tensor components (XX, YY, ZZ, XY, YZ, ZX)
― Reservoir pressure
The DSA plug-in recognizes arrays as potential stress/pressure input by the following criteria
(Figure 3):
― The arrays are stored as grid properties (e.g. converted from simulation results).
― All arrays are located in a single top-level folder in the ‘Properties’ section of the
corresponding grid.
― The stress and pressure arrays have the following names:
EFFSTRXX
EFFSTRYY
EFFSTRZZ
EFFSTRXY
EFFSTRYZ
EFFSTRZX
PRESSURE
― Time steps are recognized if the property arrays comprise a corresponding time stamp.
(A time stamp can be manually set at the ‘Info’ tab in the ‘Settings’ of a property array.)

All arrays are stored in a single

top-level folder in ‘Properties‘

Property arrays show expected

names and time stamps

Arrays can be organized in

sub-folders for convenience

Figure 3. As a top-level folder under ‘Properties’, ‘1WAY_ELASTIC’ contains all arrays required for DSA with the correct names.

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User Guide

Running DSA

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The DSA plug-in is located in the ‘Reservoir Geomechanics’ ribbon at the section labelled
‘Discontinuity Stability’. The main window of DSA is opened by the ‘Create Analysis’ button.

Stress field input

In the first tab of the DSA window labelled ‘Stability Analysis’, it is to be defined if a new analysis is
set up (‘Create new’) or an existing one shall be edited (‘Edit existing’). If a new analysis is set up,
a name has to be set (Figure 4).
The main task in this first tab is the definition of the 3D stress field input that is to be considered in
the Discontinuity Stability Analysis. This stress field can be manually defined by the user inside the
plug-in ( ‘User input’) or the results of a previously solved geomechanical model can be applied
( ‘VISAGE results’).

User input
If ‘User input’ is selected, a uniform, 3D stress field is generated based on the input parameters
provided (Figure 4). This approach can be useful if no VISAGE result is available – in an early
state of the geomechanical modelling workflow, for example.

‘Create new’ or ‘Edit existing’ analysis

Choose to manually define the stress field

Figure 4. Opening the DSA window from the Reservoir Geomechanics ribbon. In the first tab of this window, the stress input to be used
is specified. This stress field can be manually defined by the user via stress gradients.

The following input parameters have to be defined to generate a 3D tensorial stress field, which is
then taken as the stress field acting on the discontinuities under consideration. All parameters
should be entered as appropriate. The units depend on the settings of the Petrel project.

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User Guide

 ‘Ground level’: Datum depth for calculation of stresses in the subsurface of the Earth

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based on the provided gradients. This parameter needs to be adjusted to positive values in
case of significant topology onshore, whereas negative values indicate offshore locations.
In this case, the ground level will describe the depth of the sea floor and the option ‘Sea
fluid surcharge’ should be selected together with the corresponding gradient.
 ‘Vertical stress gradient’: Gradient of the vertical stress.
(Typical value: 1 psi/ft = 0.2262 bar/m)
 ‘Pore pressure gradient’: Gradient of the pore pressure.
(Typical value: 0.45 psi/ft = 0.1018 bar/m)
 ‘Sh gradient’: Gradient of minimum horizontal stress.
(Typical value: 0.7 psi/ft = 0.1583 bar/m)
 ‘Sh offset’: Offset value for the minimum horizontal stress that can be added to the stress
that is calculated based on the provided gradient. This parameter can be specified if
applicable, but is left as zero for most cases.
 ‘SH/Sh’: Ratio between the maximum and minimum horizontal stress defining the horizontal
stress anisotropy. The maximum horizontal stress is specified by the minimum horizontal
stress gradient and this ratio.
 ‘Sh azimuth’: Orientation of the minimum horizontal stress in degrees starting from North
being 0 degrees and increasing clockwise.
 ‘Sea fluid pressure gradient’: If the scenario under consideration is located offshore, the
option ‘Sea fluid surcharge’ can be selected, which allows the user to specify this gradient.
(Typical value: 0.45 psi/ft = 0.101793 bar/m)

VISAGE results
Instead of defining a uniform stress field by constant gradients, a complex, previously computed
stress field provided as results from a VISAGE simulation can be used as input for the DSA plug-in
(Figure 5).
If ‘VISAGE results’ is selected, the stress field taken into account by DSA is the 3D tensorial stress
field and pressure described by the property arrays in the chosen ‘Input folder’ that is located in the
‘Properties’ section of the geomechanical grid. These results are typically computed by VISAGE
and converted from simulation results to grid properties ( ‘Converting results to grid properties’).
 ‘Input folder’: In this drop-down menu, the folder containing effective stress and pressure
arrays is selected, which are typically converted from VISAGE simulation results to grid
properties.
 ‘Timestep’: If stress/pressure arrays are available in the input folder that describe multiple
time steps, i.e. comprise corresponding time stamps, the desired time step for the analysis
in DSA can be selected in this drop-down menu.
These time stamps are automatically set when converting results to grid properties.

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User Guide

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‘Create new’ or ‘Edit existing’ analysis

Choose to use VISAGE results as input:

Select the case folder
comprising stress results
Select appropriate time step

Figure 5. DSA window opened from the Reservoir Geomechanics ribbon. Aside from the manual definition of a uniform stress field, the
user can also select ‘VISAGE results’ as input for the Discontinuity Stability Analysis.

After choosing a name for the analysis and the type of ‘Stress tensor’ input to be considered,
further input is defined in the second tab on the DSA window.

Discontinuity input
In this second tab of the DSA window labelled ‘Faults and Fractures’, the discontinuities are
defined for which the analysis will be carried out (Figure 6).
Since the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is applied in the analysis, the two parameters describing
the fault/fracture strength are the ‘Friction Angle’ in [deg] and the ‘Cohesion’ in [bar] or [psi] (units
depending on project settings). Both parameters are specified here for the faults/fractures inserted
in the field below.
Faults and fractures are added to the analysis by using the blue arrow to drop-in selected items
from the ‘Input’ or ‘Models’ pane.
Individual fault surfaces or folders comprising fault surfaces, both located in the ‘Input’ pane, can
be dropped in. Discrete Fracture Networks (DFN) located in the ‘Models’ pane can be added to the
analysis in the same way.
Two additional buttons allows the deletion of previously dropped in faults and fracture networks
and clear all fault and fracture (DFN) input.

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User Guide

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Define the ‘Friction Angle’ & ‘Cohesion’
assumed for the faults/fractures below
Delete individual fault/DFN
Drop in the faults/fractures to be analysed:
Clear all input of faults/DFNs
• Individual fault surfaces (from ‘Input’ pane)
• Folder containing multiple fault surfaces Drop in the selected fault/DFN
• Fracture networks (from ‘Models’ pane) from the ‘Input’ or ‘Models’ pane

Figure 6. Second tab of the DSA window, in which the faults and fractures to be analysed are specified, as well as the corresponding
friction angle and cohesion value to be used.

Be aware that the defined strength parameters are applied to all inserted discontinuities. If different
strength parameters should be used for different faults/fractures, multiple analyses have to be
performed.

Please note: If the DSA plug-in is being used to predict the effects of a future plastic analyses, the friction
angle and cohesion values should match those being used in the elastic geomechanical simulation providing
the 3D stress input for DSA.

Analysis Options
In the third tab of the DSA window labelled ‘Options’, a critically stressed region and a sector filter
can be defined (Figure 7).
Under ‘Define additional critically stressed region’, the tick box ‘Define additional critically stressed
region’ allows a threshold above which a fault location or fracture is described as critically
stressed. This threshold is reached just before the actual failure criterion and is represented in the
Mohr-Coulomb diagram as a dotted line below the failure line. The threshold is defined by an angle
below the failure envelope that is typically 1-3 degrees.
Under ‘Sector model filter’, the region to which DSA is applied can be limited – either by IJK
indexes or a boundary polygon delineating the area of interest in a top view on the model. The
boundary polygon has to be selected in the ‘Input’ pane and dropped in using the blue arrow.
Press ‘Apply’ to run the analysis or press ‘OK’ to run the analysis and close the DSA window.

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User Guide

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Define the onset of a critical stress state

Define an area limit area for the analysis

via IJK range or a boundary polygon

Figure 7. Third tab of the DSA window offers the definition of a critically stressed region and a sector filter via IJK / polygon.

Hints
On the fourth tab of the DSA window labelled ‘Hints’, multiple useful hints are listed regarding the
functionality and working behaviour of DSA (Figure 8).
Please note that the blue question mark icons on all the tabs of the DSA window also provide
helpful hints when hovering over with the mouse.

Description of working behaviour of

DSA including input requirements,
results calculation and output

Figure 8. Fourth tab of the DSA window lists useful hints describing the working behaviour and result calculation of DSA.

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User Guide

DSA Results

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The DSA plug-in calculates the state of stress resolved on the fault/fracture plane and accounts for
the specific relative orientation of the 3D tensorial stress field and the orientation of the
fault/fracture surface provided. The two primary stress results are:
• Normal stress
• Shear stress
Based on the normal and shear stress, the friction coefficient (being the tangent of the friction
angle), the cohesion and the pore pressure, several additional result quantities are calculated:
• Slip Tolerance: A quantity describing the ‘distance’ to fault/fracture failure on a scale from 0
to 1 with 1 being failure.

=
+

• Coulomb Failure Function (CFF): A quantity describing the ‘distance’ to fault/fracture failure
on an open scale with negative values describing stable situations and 0 being failure.

= ( + )

• Critical Pore Pressure (CPP): The pore pressure at the point of failure, i.e. the reservoir
pressure when the fault or fracture is failing under the imposed stress state.

= +

• Critical Pore Pressure Change (CPPC): The difference between the actual reservoir pore
pressure and the Critical Pore Pressure (CPP), i.e. the amount of pore pressure increase to
reach the Critical Pore Pressure – and thus failure (positive values), or the amount the pore
pressure already exceeds the Critical Pore Pressure (negative values).

=
τ = shear stress; σn = effective normal stress; μ = friction coefficient; C = cohesion; PP = pore pressure

• In addition, a ‘Critically Stressed’ property flag delineates fractures and locations along the
faults that are located in the critically stressed region defined in the ‘Options’ tab of DSA. If
no separate threshold is defined, the failure line is separating non-critical from critically
stressed regions.

Visualizing results of fault surfaces

During the calculation, DSA creates multiple results and folders in the ‘Input’ and ‘Models’ pane.
Results can be visualized directly on the fault surfaces in a 3D window using the results stored in
the ‘Input’ pane.

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User Guide

Open a 3D window and go in the ‘Input’ pane to the folder containing the faults that were given to

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DSA. The faults included in the analysis comprise the calculated DSA results as surface attributes.
Select a fault to display it in the 3D window and select the desired result attribute for visualization
on the fault surface (Figure 9).
If the fault display does not change, double-click on the fault to open the ‘Settings’, go to the ‘Style’
tab, then to ‘Solid’ and change the ‘Color’ display to ‘Auto’.

1. Open folder of fault surfaces

used in DSA in the ‘Input’ pane

2. Select the fault and the

result as surface attribute

3. Visualize results on fault surfaces, e.g. the Slip Tolerance.

Figure 9. Visualizing DSA results as surface attributes directly on the fault surfaces in a 3D window. The grid in the background is
showing the pore pressure in the geomechanical model.

Please note: The color scale of fault surface attributes can be changed by right-clicking on them and
selecting ‘Edit global color table’. If DSA results are available for multiple time steps, the calculator can be
used to derive additional results, for example the change in Slip Tolerance.

Visualizing results of fracture networks

If a Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) was used as input in the stability analysis, DSA generates a
new DFN in the ‘Models’ pane named after the particular analysis. This newly generated DFN
represents a copy of the original DFN and comprises all results as fracture attributes, which can be
displayed on the fracture surfaces.
In addition, the new DFN comprises two ‘Fracture sets’ outlining ‘Not critically stressed’ and
‘Critically stressed’ fractures. This allows to quickly identify the location of critically stressed
fracture throughout the analysed area. Selecting the results as fracture attributes will color the
fractures accordingly (Figure 10).

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User Guide

The color scale can be changed as needed (Right-click on attribute –

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‘Edit global color table’).

All fractures colored with Slip Tolerance

Original DFN used in DSA

DFN generated by DSA Critically stress fractures colored with Slip Tolerance
for the particular analysis

1. Select a result attribute for display on the fracture network

2. Select/Unselect the fracture sets to be displayed

Figure 10. Visualizing DSA results as fracture attributes directly on the fractures of the newly created DFN in a 3D window. The grid in
the plots (right) is showing the minimum horizontal stress magnitude.

Visualizing grid property results

Aside from fault surface and DFN attributes, DSA results are also stored in the ‘Models’ pane. For
each analysis, a folder is generated by DSA within the case folder that was used as input. The
created folder comprises the DSA results as grid properties labelled with the corresponding time
step. These results can be displayed in a 3D window like any other grid property. When multiple
fracture patches and/or multiple fault points map to one grid cell, the results shown for that grid cell
will be representative of the highest slip tolerance (the most critically stressed) amongst the
various discontinuities.

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User Guide

Visualizing results in ‘Fault/Fracture Stability Analysis Window’

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DSA creates a ‘Stability analysis root’ folder, which is comprised of one folder for each analysis
performed. The results stored here can be displayed in a ‘Fault/fracture stability analysis window’.
As soon as a ‘Fault/fracture stability analysis window’ is opened, the results within the root folder
become active and can be selected and displayed (Figure 11).
Each point in the Mohr-Coulomb diagram and polar plot represents either a single fracture or a
location along the fault surface, for which shear and normal stresses were calculated.
The locations along the fault surface regarded in the DSA calculation are the meshing triangles of
the surface, which can be increased if needed. The colouring of the points in the plots reflects the
specific result property selected (for example, slip tolerance).

Case folder in ‘Models’ pane  created during result conversion

 used as input for DSA

Analysis folder comprising

results as grid properties

Dip azimuth

Dip angle

‘Stability analysis root’ folder

Results to be displayed in the

‘Fault/fracture stability analysis’ window

Figure 11. Location of the original DFN, the DFN newly created by DSA, and the ‘Stability analysis root’ folder in the ‘Models’ pane.
Results in the ‘Stability analysis root’ folder can be selected when a ‘Fault/Fracture stability analysis window’ is active and will yield a
visualization of results in a Mohr-Coulomb diagram and polar plot.

The structural resolution of the fault surface directly controls the number of points in the Mohr-
Coulomb diagram and polar plot. Higher resolutions means the fault surface is subdivided into
more meshing triangles – for which the shear and normal stresses are resolved. Consequently
more points will be plotted.

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Please note: In the ‘Stability analysis root’ folder, the settings of an individual analysis (open by double-click
on analysis folder) contain a ‘Statistics’ tab describing all stresses calculated and used by the DSA plug-in.

Visualizing average stress state

An average stress display can be toggled on for the Mohr-Coulomb diagram and polar plot in the
‘Fault/Fracture stability analysis window’. This displays the selected result, e.g. the Slip Tolerance,
for an average stress state across the discontinuity for any possible fault/fracture orientation
(Figure 12).
Copy plots to the clipboard from the
‘Fault/Fracture stability analysis window’

Switch to average stress visualization

Open main DSA window
Open new ‘Fault/Fracture
stability analysis window’

(1)

(2)

Figure 12. Plots illustrating the average stress visualization. The DSA result of a single fracture is shown in the upper plots. The shear
and normal stress resolved on the fracture plane determine the location of the point in the Mohr-Coulomb diagram, whereas its dip
angle and dip azimuth determine the point’s location in the polar plot (1). In the average stress display, the state of stress at the
fracture’s location is used to calculate the stability results for any possible fracture orientation (2). The plots are accordingly filled with a
large number of points displaying stability results for all fracture orientations under the given stress state. If more than one cell/fracture
is used in the DSA analysis, the effective stress tensor averaged component-wise for all locations is calculated and applied.

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All components of the effective stress tensor are averaged individually for all locations regarded in

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the DSA analysis, i.e. fractures or meshing triangles of fault surfaces. This results in an average
effective stress tensor, which is then used to calculate the DSA results for any possible orientation
of a discontinuity plane, i.e. any possible dip angle and dip azimuth.
The Mohr-Coulomb diagram and polar plot are then displaying a large number of points coloured in
the respective result property for the specific average stress state all possible scenarios of stability.
For this type of analysis, it might be useful to limit the area considered in the DSA analysis by IJK
coordinates or a boundary polygon.

Final Remarks
If VISAGE simulation results are used as stress input for DSA, please ensure that an elastic
analysis is used.
A non-linear analysis will have ‘solved’ the non-linearity that DSA uses to compute failure, and as
such there should be few points still in a state of failure, depending on your failure tolerances.

Help and Support

The DSA plug-in (version: 19.1.0) is provided by Schlumberger. For support information, contact
Petrel support at your location or send a request to customercarecenter@slb.com.

The User Manual can be accessed by clicking ‘Help’ button on the plug-in interface or accessed
from Help Center  Ocean  About Discontinuity Stability Analysis.

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