Locallydiscontinuouspressure formulation for highly heterogenenous reservoirs

Dr Pablo Salinas,Professor Chris Pain, Professor Matthew Jackson

Novel Reservoir Modelling and Simulation Group, Department of Earth Science and Engineering

The aim of this project is to develop and implement a hybrid discontinuous/continuous pressure formulationfor porous media flow in the Imperial College Finite Element Reservoir Simulator (IC-FERST). IC-FERST incorporates state-of-the-art technology for porous media flow simulation, including unstructured dynamic mesh optimisation, high order element methods and surface-based representation of complex reservoir architectures.Applications of IC-FERST are numerous and include simulation of CO2 sequestration, hydrocarbon recovery, groundwater flow, contaminant transport and magma flow and eruption.

Currently IC-FERST uses adaptive, unstructured meshes and a control-volume-finite-element method (CVFEM). Flexible meshing technology is required in order to honour the complex geological geometries found in subsurface reservoirs (Jackson et al. 2015; Fig. 1). However, in standard CVFEM, the CVs span the boundaries between contrasting material properties. Consequently, mass artificially leaks out of high permeability domains and into low (or zero) permeability domains and vice-versa (see Edwards 2006a and Edwards 2006b). A new CVFEM with discontinuous pressure representation was developed at ICL to handle this problem (see Salinas et al. 2015; Su et al. 2016; Gomes et al. 2016; Salinas et al. 2018). However, for smooth permeability contrasts or regions of homogeneous properties, the new method is unnecessary and computationally expensive. In this project, a hybrid of both methodologies will be developed. The discontinuous pressure representation will be used at the boundaries between material properties; elsewhere, a cheaper, classical CVFEM will be used. This will solve a problem in the field that has been unsolved since the 80s in a computationally efficient way.

Fig. 1: Left, permeability of a relay ramp model. Right, wetting phase saturation and the mesh being adapted to capture the different displacement fronts created by the interaction of the contrasting permeability layers and gravity.

Applicants should have a strong mathematical background, a good degree in an appropriate subject (e.g. earth science, mathematics, physics, computer science or engineering) and a strong interest in computational modelling and code development. The project is hosted bythe large and highly successful NOvel Reservoir Modelling and Simulation (NORMS) group and will involve extensive interactions with other groups within the Department and internationally. Skills developed during this project will include multiphase porous media flows, high performance computing, parallelisation of numerical codes, numerical discretisation techniques, linear and non-linear solvers, dynamic mesh optimisation techniques, and structured and unstructured meshing technologies. The candidate will have the opportunity to develop their career and profile by presenting at conferences and publishing in high impact journals.

For more information please contact Pablo Salinas ().

Recent Relevant References:

  1. M.D. Jackson, J. Percival, P. Mostaghimi, B. Tollit, C. P. D. Pavlidis, J. Gomes, A. El-Sheikh, A. Muggeridge, P. Salinas, and M. Blunt. Reservoir modeling for flow simulation by use of surfaces, adaptive unstructured meshes, and an overlapping-control-volume finite-element method. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering, 2015. doi: 10.2118/163633-PA.
  2. P. Mostaghimi, B.S. Tollit, S. J. Neethling, G.J. Gorman and C.C. Pain. A control volume finite element method for adaptive mesh simulation of flow in heap leaching. Journal of Engineering Mathematics, 2014. doi: 10.1007/s10665-013-9672-3
  3. J.L.M.A. Gomes, D. Pavlidis, P. Salinas, Z. Xie, J. Percival, Y. Melnikova, C. Pain, and M. D. Jackson. A force-balanced control volume finite element method for multiphase porous media flow modelling. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, 2016. doi: 10.1002/fld.4275
  4. P. Salinas, J. Percival, D. Pavlidis, Z. Xie, J. Gomes, C. Pain, and M. Jackson. A discontinuous overlapping control volume finite element method for multi-phase porous media flow using dynamic unstructured mesh optimization, SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium, 2015. doi: 10.2118/173279-MS
  5. P. Salinas, D. Pavlidis, Z. Xie, H. Osman, C.C. Pain, and M.D. Jackson. A discontinuous control volume finite element methodfor multi-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media. Journal of computational physics 2018; 352 602-614. Doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2017.09.058
  6. Su K, Latham JP, Pavlidis D, Xiang J, Fang F, Mostaghimi P, Percival JR, Pain CC, Jackson MD. Multiphase flow simulation through porous media with explicitly resolved fractures. Geofluids 2016; 15:592–607