Multiphase flow in porous media

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11280935-B2
Application number	US-201615571255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2016
Priority date	May 1, 2015
Publication date	Mar 22, 2022
Grant date	Mar 22, 2022

Abstract

A method can include receiving information associated with a geologic environment; based at least in part on the information, computing values associated with multiphase fluid flow in the geologic environment using a viscous flow upwind scheme and a buoyancy flow upwind scheme; and outputting at least a portion of the computed values.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of operating a reservoir simulator comprising:
receiving information associated with a geologic environment that comprises a reservoir;
based at least in part on the information, simulating multiphase fluid flow in a digital representation of the reservoir of the geologic environment using a viscous flow upwind scheme that comprises a total velocity direction of a total velocity based on individual phase velocities and a buoyancy flow upwind scheme that comprises a gravity direction, wherein utilization of the schemes stabilizes iterative convergence to a solution of simulated values; and
outputting at least a portion of the simulated values of the solution.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises discretizing a system of equations via a grid that defines grid cells.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein an interface exists between two adjacent grid cells.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the interface comprises an associated viscous flow equation and an associated buoyancy flow equation.

5. The method of claim 1 where the multiphase flow comprises multiphase flow in at least one porous medium.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises computing viscous flux of the viscous flow as being dependent on the total velocity based on the individual phase velocities and buoyancy flux of the buoyancy flow as being independent of the total velocity.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating implements the viscous flow upwind scheme and the buoyancy flow upwind scheme as a hybrid upwind scheme for nonlinear three-phase flow in the presence of viscous forces and buoyancy forces.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises computing co-current flow and counter-current flow.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises utilizing relative permeabilities that are C 1 continuous.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises utilizing at least one three-phase relative permeability correlation that is a monotonically increasing function of phase saturation.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating comprises implementing an iterative solver of the reservoir simulator for a nonlinear system of equations wherein the reservoir simulator comprises at least one processor.

12. The method of claim 1 comprising, based at least in part on one or more of the simulated values of the solution, issuing an instruction for controlling a fluid flow process in the geologic environment.

13. A system comprising:
a processor;
a memory operatively coupled to the processor; and
one or more modules stored in the memory that comprise processor-executable instructions to instruct the system to:
receive information associated with a geologic environment that comprises a reservoir;
based at least in part on the information, simulate multiphase fluid flow in a digital representation of the reservoir of the geologic environment using a viscous flow upwind scheme that comprises a total velocity direction of a total velocity based on individual phase velocities and a buoyancy flow upwind scheme that comprises a gravity direction, wherein utilization of the schemes stabilizes iterative convergence to a solution of simulated values; and
output at least a portion of the simulated values of the solution.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media that comprise processor-executable instructions wherein the instructions comprise instructions to:
receive information associated with a geologic environment that comprises a reservoir;
based at least in part on the information, simulate multiphase fluid flow in a digital representation of the reservoir of the geologic environment using a viscous flow upwind scheme that comprises a total velocity direction of a total velocity based on individual phase velocities and a buoyancy flow upwind scheme that comprises a gravity direction, wherein utilization of the schemes stabilizes iterative convergence to a solution of simulated values; and
output at least a portion of the simulated values of the solution.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp
• Chevron Usa Inc

Inventors

• Lee Seong
• Efendiev Yalchin
• Tchelepi Hamdi

Classifications

• G06F30/23

  using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM] · CPC title

• E21B49/08 Primary

  Obtaining fluid samples or testing fluids, in boreholes or wells · CPC title

• G01N2011/006

  Determining flow properties indirectly by measuring other parameters of the system · CPC title

• G01V2210/66

  Subsurface modeling · CPC title

• G01V99/00 Primary

  Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass · CPC title