A numerical simulation is presented for three-dimensional three-phase fluid flow in a deforming saturated oil reservoir. The mathematical formulation describes a fully coupled governing equation systen which consists of the equilibrium and continuity equations for three immiscible fluids flowing in a porous medium. An elastoplastic soil model, based on a Mohr-Coulomb yield surface, is used. The finite element method is applied to obtain simultaneous solutions to the governing equations where displacement and fluid pressures are the primary unknowns. The final discretized equations are solved by a direct solver using fully implicit procedures. The developed model is used to investigate the problems of three-phase fluid flow in a deforming saturated oil reservoir.

The surface subsidence above a compacting saturated oil reservoir is the main topic of this paper. From a literature review, it is obvious that extensive efforts have been conducted for investigating this phenomenon in various situations. Herein, a numerical model, based on the finite element method, was used for simulating three-dimensional three-phase fluid flow in a deforming saturated oil reservoir. The mathematical formulation describes a fully coupled governing equation system which consists of the equilibrium and continuity equations for three immiscible fluids flowing in a porous media. An elastoplastic soil model, based on a Mohr Coulomb yield surface, was utilized. The finite element method was applied to obtain simultaneous solutions to the governing equations where the displacements and the fluid pressures are the primary unknowns. The final discretized equations are solved by a direct solver using fully implicit procedures. A linear analysis was used to study the stability conditions of the present model. Finally, a series of simulations were conducted to indicate the validity and the utility of the developed model.

SUMMARYAn iterative method is presented for solving a fully coupled and implicit formulation of fluid flow in a porous medium. The mathematical model describes a set of fully coupled three-phase flow of compressible and immiscible fluids in a saturated oil reservoir. The finite element method is applied to obtain the simultaneous solution ( S S ) for the resulting highly non-linear partial differential equations where fluid pressures are the primary unknowns. The final discretized equations are solved iteratively by using a fully implicit numerical scheme. Several examples, illustrating the use of the present model, are described. The increased stability achieved with this scheme has permitted the use of larger time steps with smaller material balance errors.

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