Improved pressure response representation and reduction of numerical dispersion effects in reservoir simulation

Abstract

A study has been made of the effects of numerical dispersion in reservoir simulation. A one-dimensional, two-phase (water-oil) numerical model has been used in this investigation. Instead of the regular single-point upstream transmissibilities, a new technique is proposed which consists of keeping track of the position of the displacement front, and using an interblock pseudo transmissibility . It is shown that a very significant reduction of the numerical dispersion of flood fronts and much improved representation of pressure history are obtained when using these modifications. The applicability and effectiveness of this technique is illustrated by comparisons of numerical examples with theoretical and experimental data. The method proposed in this study can be implemented in any finite-difference reservoir simulator without much reprogramming effort , provided the displacement process to be simulated can be described by the Buckley-Leverett theory.