Finite Element Method Using a Characteristic-Based Split for Numerical Simulation of a Carbonate Fracture-Cave Reservoir

Fracture-cave carbonate reservoirs occur widely in source rocks and are prospects for exploitation worldwide. However, the presence of massive caves and multiscale fracture systems results in extremely complex fluid flow patterns. Therefore, in this paper, a discrete network model for fracture-cave reservoirs was established to study fluid flow characteristics and pressure distributions in complex flow regimes. In this study, the cave system was treated as a free-flow region, and the fluid flow in fracture systems followed the Navier-Stokes and Darcy equations, respectively. After discrete modeling, the Galerkin finite element method was used for numerical calculation of the single-phase free flow; the method maintains a high-precision result with low grid orientations during the simulation. In addition, because only one linear equation requires solving at each step, the solution is obtained quickly. Moreover, based on the proposed discrete media network model of fracture-cave reservoirs and the finite element numerical calculation method, a corresponding simulator was also developed. The finite element numerical simulation method based on the characteristic-based split (CBS) algorithm has proven to be applicable to complex flow problems in fracture-cave reservoirs