Reservoir Simulation

This course covers the simulation of flow in porous media during production or storage in subsurface reservoirs, e.g., during CO2 sequestration, hydrocarbon production, or water production from aquifers. The course derives partial differential equations (PDE's) for one-phase and multi-phase flow in porous materials, and numerical methods for solving these. Topics: Summary of material and fluid properties; derivation of PDE's; numerical solution of PDE's using finite differences; methods for solving linear and non-linear equations; discussion of different types of reservoir simulation models; practical sides of reservoir simulation applications.

The course will provide a foundation for simulation of flow in porous media.

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• Derive partial differential equations for describing single-phase and multi-phase flow in porous media

• Derive numerical methods to solve the equations for flow in porous media

• Create simple computer programs for numerically solving fluid flow problems

• Use a reservoir simulator to perform calculations on a realistic reservoir model

Lectures, optional exercises and project. The students will evaluate the course via a reference group.