Application of boundary-element method to streamline generation and pressure-transient testing
Reservoir geometry and heterogeneities significantly influence the flow field and consequently the pressure transient response in underground reservoir fluid flow. With the advent of accurate instrumentation, it is important to include the behavior of complex reservoir systems in the pressure transient design and analysis procedures. Boundary element method is used in this work to account for such effects. The analytical nature of the solution is preserved due to the use of free space Green's function of the governing differential operator as the weighting function in the weighted residual approach. Since the method is a boundary procedure, the dimensions of the problem are reduced by one. The use of the Green's function restricts the application of the method to linear problems with constant coefficients. A variety of problems have been considered herein. Generation of streamlines is demonstrated in odd shaped reservoirs with multiple wells. Two different formulations for transient flow of single phase fluids in homogeneous anisotropic porous media are also presented. Both real space and Laplace space formulations are derived and compared. Also the boundary element method is proposed to determine the pressure solution in a piecewise homogeneous reservoir with arbitrary geometry of each region. This formulation can solve fluid-injection problems which slow composite behavior (steam injection, CO{sub 2} flooding, in-situ combustion). In addition impermeable barriers of any shape and orientation, as well as large pressure support sources (aquifers) can be included. Both pressure and pressure derivative behavior of such systems are studied. Numerical features of the boundary element method, such as accuracy, consistency, and the optimum number of nodal points, are investigated in detail.
- Research Organization:
- Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6027110
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
ACCURACY
AQUIFERS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINEERING
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID FLOW
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
FUNCTIONS
GEOMETRY
GREEN FUNCTION
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
IN-SITU COMBUSTION
IN-SITU PROCESSING
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICS
MISCIBLE-PHASE DISPLACEMENT
OIL WELLS
OXIDATION
PETROLEUM
POROUS MATERIALS
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
PROCESSING
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
RESERVOIR FLUIDS
STEAM INJECTION
TESTING
THERMAL RECOVERY
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSIENTS
WELLS