Fluid simulator property representation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11953649-B2
Application number	US-201915733597-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2019
Priority date	Mar 31, 2018
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

A method can include accessing a depogrid generated via gridding of a structural model in a depositional space and transforming the gridded structural model to a geological space via an inverse mapping where the structural model represents structural features in a subterranean environment based at least in part on data acquired via at least one sensor; determining local u, v and w axes for a plurality of cells in the depogrid via volumetric centroids and vertices represented by coordinates in a depositional space coordinate system (u, v, w) and by coordinates in a physical coordinate system (x, y, z); defining directional geological grid properties based at least in part on the local u, v and w axes; and simulating physical phenomena of the subterranean environment via a simulator based at least in part on at least a portion of the directional geological grid properties.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
accessing a depogrid generated via gridding of a structural model in a depositional space and transforming the gridded structural model to a geological space via an inverse mapping wherein the structural model represents structural features in a subterranean environment based at least in part on data acquired via at least one sensor;
determining local u, v and w axes for a plurality of cells in the depogrid via volumetric centroids and vertices of each of the plurality of cells as represented by coordinates in a depositional space coordinate system (u, v, w) and by coordinates in a physical coordinate system (x, y, z);
orthonormalizing the local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells to generate orthonormalized local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells, wherein an increased local amount of orthonormalization indicates a decreased local quality due to locally inconsistent interpretation of one or more of the structural features represented in the structural model;
defining directional geological grid properties based at least in part on the orthonormalized local u, v and w axes, wherein the directional geological grid properties comprise a tensor permeability property; and
simulating fluid dynamics of the subterranean environment to generate simulation results via a simulator based at least in part on at least a portion of the directional geological grid properties as assigned to the depogrid.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the orthonormalizing comprises determining grid attributes utilizing the local u, v and w axes.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising performing a quality assessment based at least in part on the grid attributes.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising, during the simulating, calculating cell-to-cell transmissibility.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the depogrid comprises an unstructured grid.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining local u, v and w axes comprises determining variations of coordinates in the depositional space coordinate system (u, v, w) and coordinates in the physical coordinate system (x, y, z) within each of a plurality of cells of the depogrid.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulator comprises at least one processor, memory accessibly by the processor, processor-executable instructions stored in the memory and at least one data interface.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the depogrid comprises tetrahedral cells.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the depogrid matches the structural model.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the depogrid comprises a regular discretization in the depositional space.

11. The method of claim 1 comprising issuing a control instruction to at least one piece of equipment operatively coupled to the subterranean environment based at least in part on the simulation results.

12. The method of claim 1 , responsive to an increased local amount of orthonormalization that indicates a decreased local quality due to locally inconsistent interpretation of one or more of the structural features represented in the structural model, re-interpreting at least one of the one or more of the structural features to generate a revised structural model.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising revising the depogrid using the revised structural model.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulating fluid dynamics depends on the tensor permeability property and wherein the tensor permeability property represents, in each of the plurality of cells, a lateral permeability relative to the orthonormalized local u and v axes and a through-layer permeability relative to the orthonormalized local w axis.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the lateral permeability and the orthogonal through-layer permeability of the tensor permeability property improve the simulating and accuracy of the simulation results.

16. A system comprising:
a processor;
memory operatively coupled to the processor; and
processor-executable instructions stored in the memory to instruct the system, the instructions comprising instructions to:
access a depogrid generated via gridding of a structural model in a depositional space and transforming the gridded structural model to a geological space via an inverse mapping wherein the structural model represents structural features in a subterranean environment based at least in part on data acquired via at least one sensor;
determine local u, v and w axes for a plurality of cells in the depogrid via volumetric centroids and vertices of each of the plurality of cells as represented by coordinates in a depositional space coordinate system (u, v, w) and by coordinates in a physical coordinate system (x, y, z);
orthonormalize the local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells to generate orthonormalized local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells, wherein an increased local amount of orthonormalization indicates a decreased local quality due to locally inconsistent interpretation of one or more of the structural features represented in the structural model;
define directional geological grid properties based at least in part on the orthonormalized local u, v and w axes, wherein the directional geological grid properties comprise a tensor permeability property; and
simulate fluid dynamics of the subterranean environment to generate simulation results via a simulator based at least in part on at least a portion of the directional geological grid properties as assigned to the depogrid.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the at least one sensor comprises a seismic energy sensor.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the structural features comprise at least one horizon.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the structural features comprise at least one fault.

20. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions to instruct a computer, the instructions comprising instructions to:
access a depogrid generated via gridding of a structural model in a depositional space and transforming the gridded structural model to a geological space via an inverse mapping wherein the structural model represents structural features in a subterranean environment based at least in part on data acquired via at least one sensor;
determine local u, v and w axes for a plurality of cells in the depogrid via volumetric centroids and vertices of each of the plurality of cells as represented by coordinates in a depositional space coordinate system (u, v, w) and by coordinates in a physical coordinate system (x, y, z);
orthonormalize the local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells to generate orthonormalized local u, v and w axes for the plurality of cells, wherein an increased local amount of orthonormalization indicates a decreased local quality due to locally inconsistent interpretation of one or more of the structural features represented in the structural model;
define directional geological grid properties based at least in part on the orthonormalized local u, v and w axes, wherein the directional geological grid properties comprise a tensor permeability property; and
simulate fluid dynamics of the subterranean environment via a simulator to generate simulation results based at least in part on at least a portion of the directional geological grid properties as assigned to the depogrid.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Harris Simon
• Kashem Sheleem
• Viard Thomas
• Levassor Fabrice

Classifications

• G01V99/005 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01V1/003

  Seismic data acquisition in general, e.g. survey design (G01V1/3808, G01V1/42 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01V1/282

  Application of seismic models, synthetic seismograms · CPC title

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• E21B49/00

  Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells · CPC title