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Simulation of multiphase flows in porous media

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Abstract

The ability to numerically simulate single phase and multiphase flow of fluids in porous media is extremely important in developing an understanding of the complex phenomena governing the flow. The flow is complicated by the presence of heterogeneities in the reservoir and by phenomena such as diffusion, dispersion, and viscous fingering. These effects must be modeled by terms in coupled systems of nonlinear partial differential equations which form the basis of the simulator. The simulator must be able to handle both single and multiphase flows and the transition regimes between the two. A discussion of some of the aspects of modeling dispersion and viscous fingering is presented along with directions for future work.

The partial differential equation models are convection-dominated and contain important local effects. An operator-splitting technique is used to address these different effects accurately. Convection is treated by time stepping along the characteristics of the associated pure convection problem, and diffusion is modeled via a Galerkin method for single phase flow and a Petrov-Galerkin technique for multiphase regimes. ELLAM (Eulerian-Lagrangian Localized Adjoint Methods) are discussed to effectively treat the advection-dominated processes. Accurate approximations of the fluid velocities needed in the Eulerian-Lagrangian time-stepping procedure are obtained by mixed finite element methods. Adaptive local grid refinement techniques are then indicated to resolve important local phenomena around wells and large heterogeneities or to resolve the moving internal boundary layers which often govern the mass transfer between phases.

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  1. Departments of Mathematics Chemical Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming, 82071, Laramie, Wyoming, USA

    Richard E. Ewing

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Ewing, R.E. Simulation of multiphase flows in porous media. Transp Porous Med 6, 479–499 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00137846

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