Digital Core Sensitivity Analysis for Subterranean Simulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current simulation models for subterranean formations, such as those used in the oil industry, fail to accurately capture processes that require time, distance, or extensive gradients, like pressure or concentration, due to their limited scale and lack of structural representation of rock properties.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for digital core sensitivity analysis that uses digital rock models and fluid models to simulate subterranean formations, allowing for the variation of input parameters and presentation of results in statistical charts, enabling more accurate laboratory test design and optimization of field operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If micromodels of porous media are used to represent small pieces of media, then manufacturing precision and resolution are improved, but the residence time of fluids within the model becomes too short for many processes to develop fully
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the subterranean formation into multiple discrete layers, each layer being simulated separately with appropriate scale and resolution. This allows each layer to be modeled with high manufacturing precision while maintaining sufficient fluid residence time by representing the cumulative thickness of multiple layers rather than attempting to model the entire formation at once.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from horizontal scaling to vertical scaling by stacking multiple layers in the vertical dimension. Each layer can be modeled at appropriate resolution while the cumulative vertical thickness provides the necessary scale for fluid processes to develop fully, effectively using the vertical dimension to resolve the contradiction between resolution and residence time.
2Length of moving object
If reservoir flow models are used to predict dynamic behavior at reservoir scale, then the scale of process is improved, but the volume elements are large (meters to tens of meters) which limits the ability to capture fine-scale processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the reservoir into multiple layers with different resolutions. Coarse-scale reservoir flow models are applied at the layer level to capture large-scale dynamic behavior, while fine-scale processes are captured within each layer through appropriate volume element sizing. This segmentation allows simultaneous representation of both large scale and high resolution in different spatial contexts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different modeling resolutions to different layers based on local requirements. Each layer can have volume elements sized appropriately for the specific processes occurring in that layer, allowing fine resolution where needed and coarser resolution where large-scale behavior dominates, thus achieving local optimization of manufacturing precision while maintaining overall reservoir scale.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for performing simulation of a field having a subterranean formation, including: obtaining a three-dimensional (3D) porous solid image of a core sample, the core sample representing a portion of the field; generating a digital rock model from the solid image, the digital rock model describing a physical pore structure in the core sample; obtaining phase behavior data of fluids of the field; generating a digital fluid model of the fluids based on the phase behavior data, the digital fluid model describing a physical property of the fluid; performing, on a computer system and based on the digital rock model and the digital fluid model, simulations of the field by varying an input parameter for the simulations; and analyzing an output parameter generated by the simulations to determine an effect of varying the input parameter on the output parameter.