COUPLED ELASTOPLASTIC-VISCOPLASTIC SOLUTIONS FOR COMPACTION PROCESS IN SEDIMENTARY BASINS

Resumo

Simulation of sedimentary basins is a complex multidisciplinary problem that involves
geological, chemical and mechanical aspects. The potential applications are important in geoscience
and petroleum engineering, including exploration, reserves assessment and production activities. In
this context, basin simulators that implement numerical models are used to reconstruct its mechanical

state over geological time in order to optimize exploration processes. This work presents semi-
analytical reference solutions in elastoplasticity-viscoplasticity to describe the compaction history of

sedimentary basins in the context of finite irreversible transformations, which are useful for the
verification of numerical simulators. A finite element based modelling specifically devised for dealing
with basin simulation has been used for comparison purposes. The numerical responses were
favorably compared to the developed solutions, thus providing preliminary verification for the finite
element tool.