A new front-tracking method for reservoir simulation

Journal Article · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reservoir Engineering; (United States)

OSTI ID:5652487

Risebro, N H ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Oslo (NO)

This paper reports on the standard nonlinear, partial-differential equations that describe flow in porous media which can be separated into a pressure equation and saturation equations. If the diffusion term is ignored, the saturation equations describe a physical problem where sharp discontinuities in the physical data are possible. Finite-difference methods used to solve these equations typically exhibit numerical dispersion. They also show numerical stability problems so that very short timesteps may be required. Use of an implicit formulation can reduce this limitation of the timestep length, but this will not solve the numerical dispersion problem. New methods in the field of hyperbolic conservation laws have led to alternative solution procedures for the saturation equations. A simulator based on an implicit pressure, explicit saturation (IMPES) formulation and these methods is under development. The goal of this development work is a 3D, three-phase simulator. In this reservoir simulator, the pressure equation is solved by a finite-element method (FEM). The grid for the pressure equation can therefore be fitted to the reservoir geometry and the geometry of the sharp discontinuities in the saturations with great flexibility. The linear equation system is solved with a preconditioned conjugate-gradient method.

• OSTI ID: 5652487
• Journal Information: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reservoir Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reservoir Engineering; (United States) Vol. 7:1; ISSN SREEE; ISSN 0885-9248
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
03 NATURAL GAS
030200 -- Natural Gas-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
ANALOG SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING
EQUATIONS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FLUID FLOW
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
RESERVES
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
SATURATION
SIMULATION
SIMULATORS