The numerical simulation of multiphase flow through a porous medium and its application to reservoir engineering

AbstractThe analysis of multiphase flow in porous media is of considerable significance in the field of petroleum reservoir simulation, where accurate predictions of fluid flow are important in assessing the performance of oil and gas fields. The specific case of two-phase immiscible flow is considered by first deriving the governing nonlinear partial differential equations. The space discretization is then carried out making use of the additional versatility of the finite element method compared with originally used finite differences. By using a pair of dependent variables P and R, the bandwidth of the discrete space-continuous time equations may be reduced to increase significantly the speed of the algorithm. A discussion of time-stepping methods is followed by an application of the technique to a five-spot,an extraction pattern used in the field. The boundary conditions used to simulate this flow pattern are also discussed