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Abstract

Summary

Flow simulators assume that the transmissibility between two cells is proportional to their connection area. We show that this assumption is incorrect for partially connected cells, and assess the significance of this previously ignored error.

Faulted reservoir flow simulation models built using corner-point geometry contain partially connected cells across faults. Partial connections are an inevitable consequence of miss-alignments of grid-cells resulting from the fault displacement, and it is not possible to eliminate them without compromising either the sedimentary layering or the across-fault juxtaposition geometry. Across-fault cell connections vary in shape from triangular to hexagonal, and have widely-varying fractional connection areas (the area of the connection expressed as a fraction of the area of the cell face).

Using high-resolution flow simulation models of the volume between the centres of partially juxtaposed grid-blocks, we examine systematically the magnitude of the transmissibility error. For two cells, the error is greater when the fractional connection areas are smaller, and the kv:kh and cell length:height ratios are larger. For a realistic cell aspect ratio of 60:1, kv:kh ratio of 0.1, and fractional connection area of 0.2, tortuous flow within the cells results in a transmissibility that is about five times greater than the simulator assumption. The errors decrease when fault rock is present between the cells, and when angular miss-alignments between the cells are larger.

Analysis demonstrates that the transmissibility between partially juxtaposed cells is influenced not only by the geometry and properties of the two cells in question, but also by the surrounding cells, and the error is larger in more heterogeneous sequences. Because of the complexity of the dependencies there is no analytical solution. A wider recognition of the problem, combined with our analysis of its magnitude, may aid a better appreciation of fault-related transmissibility uncertainties.

© EAGE Publications BV
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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.20141846
2014-09-08
2024-04-19

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The Transmissibility of Partially Connected Cells
Conference Proceedings 2014, 1 (2014); https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.20141846
/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.20141846
/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.20141846
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