Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Hui Zhou

Hamdi A Tchelepi

Seong H Lee

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for an upscaling approach based on dynamic simulation of a given model. A system and method can be configured such that the accuracy of the upscaled model is continuously monitored via indirect error measures. If the indirect error measures are bigger than a specified tolerance, the upscaled model is dynamically updated with approximate fine-scale information that is reconstructed by a multi-scale finite volume method. Upscaling of multi-phase flow can include flow information in the underlying fine-scale. Adaptive prolongation and restriction operators are applied for flow and transport equations in constructing an approximate fine-scale solution.

Indirect-error-based, dynamic upscaling of multi-phase flow in porous media

A multi-scale method to efficiently determine the fine-scale saturation arising from multi-phase flow in a subsurface reservoir is disclosed. The method includes providing a simulation model that includes a fine-scale grid defining a plurality of fine-scale cells, and a coarse-scale grid defining a plurality of coarse-scale cells that are aggregates of the fine-scale cells. The coarse-scale cells are partitioned into saturation regions responsive to velocity and/or saturation changes from the saturation front. A fine-scale saturation is determined for each region and the saturation regions are assembled to obtain a fine-scale saturation distribution. A visual display can be output responsive to the fine-scale saturation distribution.

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Stanford, CA, United States of America

Hui Zhou