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New Models for Heater Wells in Reservoir Simulation
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, ECMOR XII - 12th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Sep 2010, cp-163-00017
- ISBN: 978-90-73781-89-4
Abstract
Downhole electrical heating can be used to achieve the high temperatures required for in-situ upgrading of oil shale. Heater-well models are needed if this process is to be simulated accurately. The traditional Peaceman approach used for fluid injection and production wells may not be applicable because it does not capture transient effects, which can be important in downhole heater models. Here we develop two new models for representing heater wells in reservoir simulators. The first model is applicable for homogeneous systems with properties that are not temperature dependent. For such cases we develop a semi-analytical procedure based on Green’s functions to construct time-dependent heater-well indices and heater-block thermal transmissibilities. For the general case, which can include both fine-scale heterogeneity and nonlinearity due to the temperature dependence of rock properties, we present a numerical procedure for constructing the heater-well model. This technique is essentially a near-well upscaling method and requires a local fine-scale solution in the well region. Local boundary conditions are determined using a local-global treatment. The accuracy of the new heater-well models is demonstrated through comparison to reference solutions for two example problems.