chemical engineering ebook

Quantitative Methods in Reservoir Engineering

Size : 2,44 MB

Pages : 489

Wilson C. Chin, Ph.D., MIT

This reservoir flow analysis and simulation ebook is unique because itbrings two decades of perspectives and experience on the fluid mechanics ofDarcy flows. Many commonly accepted “recipes” for flow evaluation arecritiqued, and incorrect underlying assumptions are noted. This volume aims ata rigorous and scientifically correct approach to reservoir simulation. In each ofdozens of difficult problems surveyed, the state of the art is examined, andanalytical or numerical solutions are offered, with the exact physicalassumptions always stated precisely. Industry “common sense” approaches areavoided: once the correct model is formulated, the entire arsenal of analysistools is brought to bear – we then focus on ways to extract formationinformation using the new solution or clever means to exploit the physicsuncovered.

Fortunately, this ebook does not require advanced mathematics or numericalanalysis to understand. Great care was undertaken to explain and develop veryadvanced methods in simple terms that undergraduates can comprehend. Forexample, “conforming mapping” usually requires a background course incomplex variables, and complementary subjects like streamfunctions andstreamline tracing in homogeneous media are typically taught in this framework.Quite to the contrary, our special derivations require just simple calculus butapply to anisotropic, heterogeneous media. This ebook addresses “difficult”flows, such as liquid and gas flows from fractures, general flows past shales,production from multilateral horizontal wells, multiple well interactions,rigorous approaches to effective properties, and so on, problems not oftentreated in the literature but relevant to modern petroleum engineering. In doingso, we strive to avoid the simplistic “recipe” approaches our industry oftenencourages.