Shuyu Sun - Reservoir Simulations

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Understanding and modeling of subsurface reservoirs in geological formation are required for making decisions associated with the management of the reservoirs. Subsurface reservoirs are complex systems that involve a number of overlapping phenomena, making their simulation a real challenge. Multiphase, multicomponent fluid flow should be solved with well-designed numerical simulations involving multiphysics, multiscale, multidomain, and multinumerics. As an effective method, reservoir simulation has become an essential component of many scientific and engineering applications besides oil exploitation. In recent years, the research has grown faster than ever before with the rapid development of various relevant technologies, like machine learning and deep learning. Nowadays, many oil companies all around the world are making great efforts in developing advanced reservoir simulation techniques to handle complex realistic engineering cases using state-of-the-art numerical methods together with machine learning. New topics are coming to eyes, including unconventional shale and tight reservoirs, carbon dioxide sequestration, environmentally friendly flooding, and artificially intelligent managing and predicting systems.

After more than 20 years of research experience and more than 10 years of teaching experience, both in reservoir simulation, the authors realized there are many challenges facing students and researchers in the field. For students new in this area, a common problem is being confused and frightened by the many terms and equations which are seldom explained in details. For students with certain basic knowledge, an urgent issue faced by them is to choose the best direction in order to continue learning and contributing. For researchers well trained in this area, a critical issue faced by them is to catch up with the most advanced developments and to avoid reinventing the wheel. To meet these urgent needs, the authors decided to write a book, which can be used as a textbook for students and starters in this field to get familiar with the fundamental knowledge and rigorous mathematical derivations, or it can be utilized for skilled engineers and researchers to help them keep in touch with the most advanced research topics.

This book is designed as follows. In the Introduction, readers will get exposed to the basic concepts, terms, and equations governing fluid flows in reservoir simulation. In , Recent progress in accelerating flash calculation using deep learning algorithms. Exercises and case studies are designed in each chapter to help readers check their understanding and get hands-on training of mathematical modeling and coding.

This book is dedicated to Prof. Mary Wheeler, my former PhD advisor, in honor of her successful career. Prof. Wheeler guided me into the world of reservoir simulation, and she has provided tremendous support through my entire career development. I would like also to thank my family, especially Min, Helen, and Max for their patience, love, and support. The coauthor, Tao Zhang helped me with manuscript generation and data collection. Three postdoctoral fellows in our group, Dr. Piyang Liu, Dr. Jingfa Li, and Dr. Yuzhu Wang also helped us in , respectively, and we would like to show our deep gratitude to them. Other group members in our Computational Transport Phenomena Laboratory (CTPL), including Dr. Xiaolin Fan, Yiteng Li, Dr. Jisheng Kou, and Dr. Huangxin Chen, have also helped substantially in the inclusive studies. The work of our group reported in this book is sponsored by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, and we highly appreciate that.

The world is going forward and will never stop. That includes reservoir simulation techniques. The authors welcome criticisms and suggestions on this book, and we will be happy if this book can help you!

Shuyu Sun, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

August 30, 2019

Shuyu Sun

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Tao Zhang

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

This chapter introduces the basic concepts and terms used in the book. It starts with a brief description of the goal of reservoir simulation. This is followed by a review of recent advance in reservoir simulation. Moreover, reservoir rock properties, fluid properties, rock-fluid interaction properties, and other properties involved in reservoir simulation are discussed in detail. The chapter ends with an overview of the equations expressing the principles of conservation of mass, momentum, and total energy, which are collectively known as the Navier-Stokes equations.