An Alternative to Streamlines for Flow Diagnostics on Structured and Unstructured Grids

Shahvali, Mohammad; Mallison, Bradley T.; Wei, Kaihong; Gross, Hervé

doi:10.2118/146446-ms

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The resulting statistics of the TOF are needed to determine the distribution of Z( x,t) by means of kernel density estimation (KDE) (Botev et al, 2010). The TOF can also be estimated by solving an elliptic steady-state equation in Eulerian coordinates (Shahvali et al, 2012).…”

Section: Saturation Distribution Estimation Via Stochastic Travel Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

An efficient distribution method for nonlinear two-phase flow in highly heterogeneous multidimensional stochastic porous media

Ibrahima

Meyer

2017

Comput Geosci

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In the context of stochastic two-phase flow in porous media, we introduce a novel and efficient method to estimate the probability distribution of the wetting saturation field under uncertain rock properties in highly heterogeneous porous systems, where streamline patterns are dominated by permeability heterogeneity, and for slow displacement processes (viscosity ratio close to unity). Our method, referred to as the frozen streamline distribution method (FROST), is based on a physical understanding of the stochastic problem. Indeed, we identify key random fields that guide the wetting saturation variability, namely fluid particle times of flight and injection times. By comparing saturation statistics against full-physics Monte Carlo simulations, we illustrate how this simple, yet accurate FROST method performs under the preliminary approximation of frozen streamlines. Further, we inspect the performance of an accelerated FROST variant that relies on a simplification about injection time statistics. Finally, we introduce how quantiles of saturation can be efficiently computed within the FROST framework, hence leading to robust uncertainty assessment.

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Section: Saturation Distribution Estimation Via Stochastic Travel Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

An efficient distribution method for nonlinear two-phase flow in highly heterogeneous multidimensional stochastic porous media

Ibrahima

Meyer

2017

Comput Geosci

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“…The method is currently used in industrial engineering workflows to validate, rank, and compare large geological and conceptual reservoir models prior to predictive modeling. Moreover, there is a recent tendency to reevaluate Eulerian advection models as an alternative to the streamline simulation approach to overcome its limitations (Natvig et al ; Shahvali et al ; Møyner et al ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Practical Grid‐Based Alternative Method to Advective Particle Tracking

Sbai

2018

Groundwater

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Advective particle tracking is a conventional groundwater modeling technique that is widely used as a screening tool but lacks robustness as a reliable method for general applications. In this work, we investigate the suitability of industry-standard, finite-difference, grid-based methods as an alternative to the conventional particle-tracking approach. The presented method is classified as a particular case of the more general forward- or backward-in-time advective-dispersive probabilistic transport approaches. The proposed method is used as a powerful screening tool to accurately delineate and visualize capture zones around abstraction wells or outflow boundaries, the swept zones formed by injection wells or inflow boundaries, and the partitions associated with injection-pumping well doublets or inflowing-outflowing boundary pairs. Moreover, we show that the forward or backward travel times and residence time distributions are robustly simulated and visualized on the computational grid with little computational effort. Two examples are given to illustrate the key advantages of this method in groundwater applications. The first example considers a synthetic pump-and-treat remediation system in an irregularly layered aquifer. The second example involves four doublet wells operating for heat extraction in the Dogger geothermal reservoir in the Paris Basin, a leading European scale project. The presented approach is far more comprehensive as a screening tool than the conventional method, providing a natural intermediate step before processing the more general time-dependent advective-dispersive simulations.

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Optimization of waterflooding performance by using finite volume-based flow diagnostics simulation

Mfoubat

Zaky

2019

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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From a visual point of view, volumetric information about reservoir portioning and communication such as sweep, flow patterns, and drainage zones are longer better interpreted and pictured when presented by an average volumetric flux calculation. To this hand, finite volume discretization can be used to substitute streamline simulation-based finite difference to assess flow diagnostic information. Herein, we use finite volume-based flow diagnostics to optimize waterflooding. In particular, we discretize in finite volume the flow equation from Darcy's law single-phase incompressible flow steady state combining with two auxiliary flow equations, time of flight and stationary tracers using the two-point flux approximation to describe fluid particles motion and flow lines. In addition, with the estimation of dynamic heterogeneity, we compute the Lorenz coefficient to highlight the reservoir flow and storage capacity characterization. To optimize waterflooding rates, we first, use an objective function the equalized Lorenz coefficient got through the evaluation of average travel time in cells to increase sweep efficiency and decrease the dynamic heterogeneity coefficient. Second, following the same target, we use the flow diagnostic interactive tools to study the volumetric sweep displacement front and harmonize the flooding breakthrough. In this work, our conceptual approach is to see the reservoir initially filled with oil; then, optimizing the Lorenz coefficient leads us to an oil recovery improvement. To be pragmatic, we apply our waterflooding performance optimization model on two case studies, the ninth SPE comparative solution project, a reexamination of black-oil (synthetic case) and ZHNBA Chinese oilfield (real field dataset).

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An Alternative to Streamlines for Flow Diagnostics on Structured and Unstructured Grids

Cited by 8 publications

References 19 publications

An efficient distribution method for nonlinear two-phase flow in highly heterogeneous multidimensional stochastic porous media

An efficient distribution method for nonlinear two-phase flow in highly heterogeneous multidimensional stochastic porous media

A Practical Grid‐Based Alternative Method to Advective Particle Tracking

Optimization of waterflooding performance by using finite volume-based flow diagnostics simulation

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