AccScience Publishing / JSE / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/JSE025330057
ARTICLE

Prediction of fracture and vug parameters in carbonate reservoirs using a combined T-GNO-PINN approach

Yiru Du1 Guoqing Chen1 Cong Pang2,3 Tianwen Zhao4*
Show Less
1 Mathematical Modeling Research Center, Chengdu Jincheng College, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
2 Institute of Seismology Earthquake Administration, Wuhan, Hubei, China
3 Wuhan Gravitation and Solid Earth Tides, National Observation and Research Station, Wuhan, Hubei, China
4 Department of Trade and Logistics, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea
Submitted: 14 August 2025 | Revised: 20 October 2025 | Accepted: 6 November 2025 | Published: 16 December 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

To address the challenges of fracture-vuggy parameter prediction in carbonate reservoirs, such as strong multi-scale heterogeneity and a lack of physical constraints, this study proposed a Transformer–Graph Neural Operator (GNO)–Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) joint prediction framework, which achieves a bidirectional coupling between multi-source data fusion and physical laws. First, a Transformer module with a multi-scale attention mechanism and spherical coordinate effectively captures cross-scale spatiotemporal features in three-dimensional geological space (reducing error by 12.3%). Second, a dynamic GNO based on physical similarity adaptively tracks the evolution of fracture-vuggy connectivity (achieving a topology update accuracy of 93.5%). Finally, a PINN module embedded in the seepage-mechanical coupling equations constrains the physical residual loss to the order of 0.42×10⁻3, reducing the conservation error from 3.17% to 0.48%. In an empirical study of Ordovician fracture-vuggy reservoirs in the Tarim Basin, this framework achieved a mean absolute error of 3.57% and an R2 of 0.90 for fracture-vuggy volume fraction (Vf). In high-pressure gradient regions (>5 MPa/m), the relative error was reduced by 18%, significantly outperforming traditional methods (reducing Kriging error by 40.7%) and single-module models (PINN error reduction of 15.3%). Experimental results showed that dynamic graph construction increased the spatial autocorrelation index (Moran’s I) to 0.71; the introduction of physical constraints reduced extreme error samples by 63%; and the multimodal collaborative training strategy resulted in a 19.7% improvement in overall performance. This research provides a new paradigm for high-precision and physically interpretable digital twin modeling of carbonate reservoirs.

Keywords
Carbonate reservoir
Fracture-vuggy parameter prediction
Transformer
Graph Neural Operator
Physical Information Neural Network
Multimodal fusion
Funding
This research was financially supported by 2025 Doctoral Special Support Program Project of Chengdu Jincheng College (NO.2025JCKY(B)0018); the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Education Department of Sichuan Province, Panzhihua University, Resource based City Development Research Center Project (NO.ZYZX-YB-2404); Mahasarakham University; and the Open Fund of Sichuan Oil and Gas Development Research Center (NO.2024SY017).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
References
  1. Xia LW, Cao J, Wang M, Mi JL, Wang TT. A review of carbonates as hydrocarbon source rocks: Basic geochemistry and oil-gas generation. Petrol Sci. 2019;16(4):713-728. doi: 10.1007/s12182-019-0343-5

 

  1. Jia C. Petroleum geology of carbonate reservoir. In: Characteristics of Chinese Petroleum Geology: Geological Features and Exploration Cases of Stratigraphic, Foreland and Deep Formation Traps. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2012. p. 495-532. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-23872-7

 

  1. Geng T, Yanping L, Bo W, Xiao B, Huan W. Reservoir evaluation method and development countermeasures for Fracture-Vuggy reservoir. Spec Oil Gas Reserv. 2021;28(6):129-136. doi: 10.3390/pr12040640

 

  1. Deng Z, Zhou D, Dong H, Huang X, Wei S, Kang Z. Deep learning for predicting porosity in ultra-deep fractured vuggy reservoirs from the Shunbei oilfield in Tarim Basin, China. Sci Rep. 2024;14(1):29605. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-81051-4

 

  1. Wang Y, Xie P, Zhang H, Liu Y, Yang A. Fracture-vuggy carbonate reservoir characterization based on multiple geological information fusion. Front Earth Sci. 2024;11:1345028. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1345028

 

  1. Lin K, Wei N, Zhang Y, et al. Advances in machine-learning-driven CO2 geological storage: A comprehensive review and outlook. Energy Fuels. 2025;39:13315-13343.doi: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5c02370

 

  1. Huang B, Wang J. Applications of physics-informed neural networks in power systems-a review. IEEE Trans Power Syst. 2022;38(1):572-588. doi: 10.1109/TPWRS.2022.3162477

 

  1. Rao C, Sun H, Liu Y. Physics-informed deep learning for computational elastodynamics without labeled data. J Eng Mech. 2021;147(8):04021043. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2006.08472

 

  1. Li M, Wang Q, Yao C, Chen F, Wang Q, Zhang J. Optimization of development strategies and injection-production parameters in a fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoir by considering the effect of karst patterns: Taking c oilfield in the tarim basin as an example. Energies. 2025;18(2):319. doi: 10.3390/en18020319

 

  1. Su X, Ren B, Huang Z. Permeability analysis of fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs based on fractal theory. Fractals. 2022;30(07):2250144. doi: 10.1142/S0218348X22501444

 

  1. Ganguli SS, Dimri VP. Reservoir characterization: State-of-the-art, key challenges and ways forward. In: Developments in Structural Geology and Tectonics. Vol. 6. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2023. p. 1-35. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-323-99593-1.00015-X

 

  1. Li W, Duan J, Zhu D, Wu J. The research progress on carbonate reservoir evaluation: Technical applications, challenges, and future development directions. Adv Resour Res. 2025;5(3):1177-1198. doi: 10.50908/arr.5.3_1177

 

  1. Refaat A, Eltom HA, El-Husseiny A. On the limitations of spot permeability measurements to quantify bulk permeability of bioturbated reservoirs: Insights from digital rock physics modeling. Mar Petrol Geol. 2025;182:107577. doi: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2025.107577

 

  1. Cao X, Liu Z, Hu C, Song X, Quaye JA, Lu N. Three-dimensional geological modelling in earth science research: An in-depth review and perspective analysis. Minerals. 2024;14(7):686. doi: 10.3390/min14070686

 

  1. Luo Q, Zeng W, Chen M, Peng G, Yuan X, Yin Q. Self-attention and transformers: Driving the evolution of large language models. In: 2023 IEEE 6th International Conference on Electronic Information and Communication Technology (ICEICT). IEEE; 2023. p. 401-405. doi: 10.1109/ICEICT57916.2023.10245906

 

  1. Li S, Chen J, Xiang J. Applications of deep convolutional neural networks in prospecting prediction based on two-dimensional geological big data. Neural Comput Appl. 2020;32(7):2037-2053.doi: 10.1007/s00521-019-04341-3

 

  1. Pan J, Liu W, Liu C, Wang J. Convolutional neural network-based spatiotemporal prediction for deformation behavior of arch dams. Expert Syst Appl. 2023;232:120835. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2023.120835

 

  1. Kovachki N, Li Z, Liu B, et al. Neural operator: Learning maps between function spaces with applications to pdes. J Mach Learn Res. 2023;24(89):1-97. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2108.08481

 

  1. Anandkumar A, Azizzadenesheli K, Bhattacharya K, et al. Neural operator: Graph kernel network for partial differential equations. In: Paper Presented at: ICLR 2020 Workshop on Integration of Deep Neural Models and Differential Equations; 2020. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2003.03485

 

  1. de la Mata FF, Gijón A, Molina-Solana M, Gómez-Romero J. Physics-informed neural networks for data-driven simulation: Advantages, limitations, and opportunities. Physica A. 2023;610:128415. doi: 10.1016/j.physa.2022.128415

 

  1. Xu H, Zhang D, Zeng J. Deep-learning of parametric partial differential equations from sparse and noisy data. Phys Fluids. 2021;33(3):037132. doi: 10.1063/5.0042868

 

  1. Huang T, Qian H, Huang Z, et al. A time patch dynamic attention transformer for enhanced well production forecasting in complex oilfield operations. Energy. 2024;309:133186. doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.133186

 

  1. Zhao T, Chen G, Pang C, Busababodhin P. Application and performance optimization of SLHS-TCN-XGBoost model in power demand forecasting. Comp Model Eng Sci. 2025;143(3):2883-2917. doi: 10.32604/cmes.2025.066442

 

  1. Zhao T, Chen G, Suraphee S, Phoophiwfa T, Busababodhin P. A hybrid TCN-XGBoost model for agricultural product market price forecasting. PLoS One. 2025;20(5):e0322496. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322496

 

  1. Zhao T, Chen G, Gatewongsa T, Busababodhin P. Forecasting agricultural trade based on TCN-LightGBM models: A data-driven decision. Res World Agric Econ. 2025;6(1):207-221. doi: 10.36956/rwae.v6i1.1429

 

  1. Zhao T, Chen G, Pang C, Seenoi P, Papukdee N, Busababodhin P. Time-lapse earthquake difference prediction based on physics-informed long short-term memory coupled with interpretability boosting. J Seismic Explor. 2025;34(3):25-48. doi: 10.36922/JSE025310049
Share
Back to top
Journal of Seismic Exploration, Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing