Stratigraphic Fault Modeling via Parameterized Grid Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stratigraphic modeling techniques struggle to efficiently represent lateral movement of structure blocks in syndepositional environments, leading to unrealistic stacking patterns and reduced predictive capabilities due to computational inefficiencies in accessing and re-gridding sedimentary information.
Innovation Solution
A new gridding method that uses a parameterized scheme to represent the global structure of the grid, allowing for efficient lateral and vertical movement of grid volumes by changing a few parameters, enabling easy access and segmentation of cells without altering the overall topology, thus facilitating realistic fault modeling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a 3D unstructured grid is re-meshed to represent structure move realistically, then the structural movement is accurately represented, but the computational cost becomes prohibitively expensive and efficiency is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The grid is divided into multiple grid volumes that can be independently moved relative to each other. Each grid volume can be laterally translated without requiring complete re-gridding of the entire model, enabling efficient representation of structural movements while maintaining computational efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The grid structure is made dynamic by allowing lateral translation of grid volumes along fault surfaces. This dynamic adjustment enables the model to adapt to structural movements without static re-meshing, balancing accuracy with computational efficiency.
2Productivity
If a structured grid is used for efficient access to sedimentary information, then access efficiency is improved, but the ability to perform lateral translations of grid portions is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The structured grid is segmented into multiple movable grid volumes. This segmentation allows portions of the grid to be laterally translated along fault surfaces while maintaining the structured grid's efficiency for sedimentary information access in the non-moving portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The grid system incorporates dynamic lateral translation capabilities for grid volumes, transforming the static structured grid into a dynamic system that can adapt to structural movements while preserving access efficiency.
3Manufacturing precision
If complete re-gridding is performed to represent lateral movement, then structural accuracy is improved, but computational time and resources are prohibitively consumed
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of performing complete re-gridding, only the affected grid volumes are segmented and moved. This localized approach maintains structural accuracy in the faulted regions while avoiding the computational overhead of re-gridding the entire model.
Solution Approach 2:
The grid is pre-segmented into volumes that can be independently moved. This preliminary segmentation allows for efficient structural adjustments without time-consuming complete re-gridding operations, as the segmentation framework is already in place.
Data Source
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AI summary
A new gridding method is disclosed for forward stratigraphic modeling that allows for syndepositional and/or postdepositional fault movement. The new gridding algorithm may represent both the lateral move of structure block, and provide efficiency that is comparable to the structured grid for forward stratigraphy model accessing previous deposited sediments stored in the grid. Embodiments of the disclosed methods allow for structural moves by performing a set of simple operations on the grid. The operations are generally simple, and do not change the overall topology of the grid. Therefore the operation can be easily repeated and the overall topological structure of the grid remains largely unchanged for simple access by the forward stratigraphic model. Further details and advantages of various embodiments of the method are described in more herein.