Researchers from Schlumberger’s technology centers in Leeds, UK and Montpellier, France are proposing to move numerically-intensive discrete fracture network computation to the cloud. A new application, ‘iFracIT,’ developed at Schlumberger’s Rock Deformation Research unit, is used to evaluate the fracture density distribution across a reservoir and provide QC and audit of what the researchers describe as weaknesses in current approaches to 3-D fracture network characterization.
The proposed move to the cloud will leverage Schlumberger’s internally-developed ‘Mere’ microservices-based cloud platform and services for visualization and data management.
Mere is based on open sources libraries such as the Javascript cross platform graphics framework Qooxdoo and Three.js for 3D visualization, with added support for scientific visualization.
The researchers envisage that microservices and cloud computing will transform delivery of applications such as iFracIT. But first, ‘proprietary’ C# code requires conversion to JavaScript or encapsulation using a technology such as Qt’s WebChannel. Initially, a slimmed-down version of the tool will be migrated as a proof of concept.
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