Reservoir Simulation

Lecture 9: Reservoir Simulator

Haval Hawez
Petroleum Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Koya University

14.02.2018
Outline: Flow Equations

 General Single Phase Flow Equations

• Darcy Law

• Conservation of Mass

• Constitutive equation for porous media

• Constitutive equation for fluids

 The Physics of Single Phase Flow
 The single-phase one dimensional pressure equation

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
 Darcy’s law
Darcy’s law for single-phase flow states that in a
horizontal system the volumetric flow rate, Q, through
a sample of porous material of length L and a cross-
sectional area A , is given by :

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
where A*ΔP is the applied pressure drop across the sample, μ is
the viscosity of the fluid, and K is the absolute permeability of the
medium. For flow in only one direction (say, parallel to the x-axis),
we can write Darcy’s law in the following differential form:

where u = Q/A is a flow velocity, and 𝟃Pl𝟃x is the pressure

gradient in the x-direction. Note the negative sign, which indicates
that the pressure declines in the direction of flow.

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
 The differential form of Darcy’s law may be generalized to
three dimensions as follows :

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
• where Ux, Uy, and Uz, are the x-, y -, and z-components of a
velocity vector. For generality, we shall take the depth, D, to
be a function of the coordinates, (x, y, z). Then the differential
form of Darcy's law becomes:

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
Conservation of mass
 Mass conservation may be formulated across a control
element, with one fluid of density ρ is flowing through it at a
velocity u:

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General Single Phase Flow Equations

 Dividing by Δx, and taking the limit as Δx approaches zero, we

get the conservation of mass, or continuity equation:

 For constant cross sectional area, the continuity equation

simplifies to

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
Constitutive equation for porous materials
 To include pressure dependency in the porosity, we use the
following definition of rock compressibility, which for
constant temperature is written:

 Normally, we may assume that the bulk volume of the porous

material is constant, i.e. the bulk compressibility is zero and
this is not always true.

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General Single Phase Flow Equations
Constitutive equation for fluids
 Recall the familiar fluid compressibility definition, which
applies to any fluid at constant temperature:

 Equally familiar is the gas equation, which for an ideal gas is:

 and for a real gas includes the deviation factor, Z

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The Physics Single Phase Flow

 Introduces the basic equations of flow through porous media

which are solved in a reservoir simulation code

 First – the single phase flow equation for a compressible

Fluid

 Main principle in derivation = application of mass balance

between flow and accumulation + application of Darcy'sLaw

 Resulting equations are non linear partial differential

equations (PDEs) which can usually not be solved analytically.

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The Physics Single Phase Flow

Basic principle
of Mass
Balance +
Darcy's Law

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The Physics Single Phase Flow

The “physics” of compressible single-phase system

 Shows a long thin (1D) “reservoir” containing compressible

fluid and rock (cf and cr ; cf >> cr).

 Well 1 is at x = 0, and Well 2 is at x = L. If the wells are both

shut-in pressure in the system will reach a constant value,
Po. The bottom hole pressures equalizes in both wells-also
P(x) = Po at t = 0.

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The Physics Single Phase Flow

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The single-phase one
dimensional pressure
equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

i+/-1/2
= boundaries

q i+/-½= volumetric
flow rates

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

Mass in block at t and t+Δt (accumulation)=

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation
 Now we applying the material balance conditions by equating
the flow and accumulation equations.

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation
 Where Darcy vel., u = q/A

 Taking Limits

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

Differential conservation (Exact) equation

 Pressure is not mentioned in above equation .. To include this

must use Darcy’s Law

Differential conservation
(Inexact) equation

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Expanding LHS using chain rule (ρ(p) and 𝞥(p))

 substituting above gives:

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation
The above equation is:
 non-linear partial differential equation (PDE) , (difficult to
solve analytically)
Such equations usually be solved by one or two approaches:
 Numerically-approximation to the full equation which can
handle the non - linearities using certain types of iterative
methods.
 Analytically-Simplify the equation to the extent that it
becomes soluble analytically. A simplified equation may have
an exact solution, but the simplifications may have “thrown
away” some of the important physics.

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Simplifying the PDE equation

Simplifying assumptions:
1.viscosity, μ, is constant (with x and P)
2.permeability and porosity, k and φ, are constant, (with x and P)
3.that pressure gradients, (∂P/∂x), are “small” such that
4.The fluid has a constant compressibility, Cf

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Applying assumptions 1 and 2 (μ, k & φ const.) gives:

 which rearranges to

 Expand the RHS using product rule

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Expand further noting ρ(P), to obtain

 Apply assumption 3:

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Simplify to

 Dividing both sides on ρ

 Sub. for fluid compressibility, cf.

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 More commonly written

 Where is constant (hydraulic diffusivity, Dh):

 Above equations is Linear PDE (Diffusion Equation)

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The Single Phase Pressure Equation

 Above equation is the simplified (slightly) compressible 1D

flow equation in Cartesian form

 In the radial form

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