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Effective Permeability Calculation a Numerical Artifact or Genuine Problem
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, ECMOR XII - 12th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Sep 2010, cp-163-00112
- ISBN: 978-90-73781-89-4
Abstract
ABSTRACT Subsurface reservoirs generally have a complex description in terms of both geometry and geology. This poses a continuing challenge in modelling and simulation of reservoirs due to variations at different length scales. Consequently, averaging and/or homogenization techniques are needed to scale up the fine scale grid information to resolve the flow on coarse grid. The representation of fine grid properties on a coarse grid scale is obtained via the principle of upscaling. Upscaling has been standard procedure in reservoir simulation for many decades. Upscaling approaches used in industry ranges from analytical to numerical upscaling. In recent years with the increase in complexity of geological models there has been a greater push in the industry towards used of numerical upscaling techniques. In this paper we will present some numerical experiment using standard finite-difference simulators to address the challenges, which still exists in application of numerical upscaling techniques. We will try to address the question that the standard finite-difference simulators may underestimate effective permeability when applied to heterogeneous systems and anisotropic grids. Keywords: Upscaling, Permeability, Geology, Finite-difference Simulators, Anisotropic Grids.