A Novel Coupling Of Rigorous And Efficient Three-phase Equilibrium Calculations With Advanced Discretization And Linearization Schemes For Computational Reservoir Simulations

Abstract

The properties of fluids flowing in a petroleum reservoir are quantified by understanding the thermodynamic behavior of each flowing phase in the system. This dissertation develops and describes proper techniques to formulate and execute a thermodynamic model for accurately predicting the equilibrium behavior of oil-gas-brine systems within the practical range of pressure and temperature for petroleum reservoirs. A three-phase negative flash approach for stability testing and multiphase equilibrium calculations of thermodynamic phases is developed, and validated against published data from the available literature. The multiphase flash procedure is implemented to generate linearized physical properties by using an Operator-Based Linearization (OBL) modeling technique, allowing for the utilization of multiple complex physics in the non-linear solution of the governing equations. The multiphase flash calculations were tested for highly heterogeneous unstructured meshes discretized using the Mimetic Finite Difference (MFD) method, and proved to be robust, accurate, and efficient. This is the first coupling of three-phase flash calculations for hydrocarbons and brines based on fugacity activity models with advanced, highly efficient and advanced linearization and discretization schemes. Our approach increases the efficiency and flexibility of the modelling process of the different physical phenomena involved in fluid flow in porous subsurface reservoirs.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Science and Engineering