A generalized streamline method to predict reservoir flow

We present a generalized streamline method to model flow in porous media, including the effects of gravity and dispersion. We first describe the theory and discuss the approximations of the method, and then compare the predictions using the streamline technique against two-dimensional numerical simulations of incompressible miscible flow. In the cases we studied, the streamline method predicts recovery with an average error of at most 5%, where the principal flow directions are governed by the pattern of permeability, and for gravity numbers less than or equal to 1 and mobility ratios of 10 or less. The streamline method does not suffer from numerical dispersion and is more than 100 times faster than conventional simulation.