International Conference on

Flows and Mechanics in Natural Porous Media

from Pore to Field Scale - Pore2Field
16 - 18 November 2011

Modified nested­gridding for 
upscaling­downscaling of 
reservoir simulation
Masoud Babaei
Prof. Peter R. King
 Outline
 Importance of upscaling What is Upscaling?
 Errors associated with • Assign “effective” properties to coarse scale
upscaling for EOR gridblocks from properties of fine scale
performance simulation geocellular grid.
 Adaptive Local-Global • Capture the flow features of fine scale
(ALG) upscaling and model.
Nested-Gridding (NG)
downscaling Why Upscale?
 Modifications • Make simulation practical
 Water and polymer flood ─ geological models: ~10 ‑100 million cells
simulation and • Reduce CPU time for uncertainty analysis
comparison of production and risk assessment
curves and saturation
profiles
 Remarks

2
 Upscaling of Absolute
Permeability
 60×60×50  6×6×5

< u >= k*<�p >

 Pressure Solver Method (PSM)
Warren, J.E. & Price, H.S. (1961)

*
�κ �
VE
p dx = k ��pdx VE

3
 Water flooding
vt = vo + v w .

�.v t = q, t = - lt ( S )�
vκ p in W. Pressure equation

�
S Saturation equation
- �.( v t f ( S )) = q, in W.
�t

lt ( S ) = lo + lw , li = kri mi , i = o, w fi ( Si ) = li lt

-�κlt ( S ).�p = q � TP = q
•Finite difference for pressure eqn.

•Implicit (Newton-Raphson) iteration loop for saturation eqn.

Tracer flow lt = kro mo + krw m w = (1 - S ) + S = 1

lt = kro mo + krw mw = (1 - S ) 2 / mo + S 2 / mw
Multiphase flow
M = mo / mw = 1, M = mo / m w = 10
4
 Comparison with fine scale (Errors of
Upscaling)
Injector
Smooth layer (1) Water cut vs. PV injected
Reference―, GM―,PSM ―
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Producer
Injector
1
1
0.8
0.8
0.6
0.6
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Channelized layer (37) Producer
Upscaled from 60×220 to 6×22 10th SPE CSP Model, Christie, M.A. & Blunt, M.J. (2001)

5
daptive Iterative Upscaling-Downscaling Schem

Adaptive local global iterative upscaling:

Chen, Y. & Durlofsky, L.J. (2006).
Kippe, V., Aarnes,J. & Knut-Andreas (2008)
Calculate the coarse
transmissibility from
assumed boundary
conditions
qmc ,n
Tmc,n = .
pm - pn
Use new coarse Solve coarse
pressures as problem by
boundaries of local coarse
problems properties

Criterion for detecting the dynamic regions:

6
Adaptive Iterative Upscaling-Downscaling
Scheme
(continued)
Nested-Gridding downscaling
Gautier, Y., Blunt, M.J. &
Christie, M.A. (1999)

t = - �
vκ p,v �. t = q in E ,
tg i
c
v t .n |G ==| q | . on G E.
�
G
t
g i �G g i

7
 Modifications in downscaling

tg i � t � | vg�
g i �G g i i | �
g i �G
| vg�
i | ALG-MNG

v = �G ̶= E | qGc i | .v G i + vp, on E. ALG-MNG– or ALG-MNG+

i

8
 Switching the scales

Fine scale
permeability

Coarse scale representation Fine scale saturation

Reconstructed fine
Coarse scale velocity scale velocity

Upscaling/Downscaling simulation Reference fine scale simulation

9
 Linear flow case f(S)=const.
0 0 0

-2 -2
-2
-4 -4
-4

0.004 to 20,000mD

Upscaled from 60×220 to 6×22

Water cut­ Layer 10 Water cut­ Layer 37 Water cut­ Layer 47
1   1   1  

0.8 0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6 0.6

0.4 PSM 0.4 PSM 0.4 PSM

PSM­NG PSM­NG PSM­NG
ALG ALG ALG
0.2 0.2 0.2
ALG­MNG ALG­MNG ALG­MNG
Fine Fine Fine
0  0  0 
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
PVI PVI PVI

10
 Error in saturation profiles
Application of MNG

Layer 10 Layer 37 Layer 47

0.2 0.8   1  
PSM­NG PSM­NG
ALG­NG PSM­NG ALG­NG
PSM­MNG ALG­NG PSM­MNG
0.16 ALG­MNG PSM­MNG 0.8 ALG­MNG
0.6 ALG­MNG

0.12 0.4 0.6

0.08 0.2 0.4

    0.2  
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
PVI PVI PVI

, t ) - S rec (�
|| S (� , t ) ||L2
e ( S rec , S , t ) = �
|| S (�
, t ) ||L2

11
 Saturation profiles

Fine Model

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

PSM­NG Model

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
ALG­NG Model

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

ALG­MNG– Model

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

12
 Multiphase flow, M=0.1

Water cut­ Layer 10­ M=0.1 Water cut­ Layer 37­ M=0.1
1   1  
PSM
PSM­NG
0.8 0.8
ALG
ALG­MNG+
ALG­MNG–
0.6 0.6
Fine

0.4 PSM
0.4
PSM­NG
ALG
0.2 0.2 ALG­MNG+
ALG­MNG–
Fine
0  0 
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
PVI PVI

13
 Multiphase flow, M=10

Water cut­ Layer 10­ M=10 Water cut­ Layer 37­ M=10
1   1  

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 PSM 0.4 PSM

PSM­NG PSM­NG
ALG ALG
0.2 ALG­MNG+ 0.2 ALG­MNG+
ALG­MNG– ALG­MNG–
Fine Fine
0  0 
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
PVI PVI

14
 Error in saturation profiles
Layer 10 Layer 37 Layer 47
0.19   0.55   1  
PSM­NG PSM­NG
ALG­NG ALG­NG
PSM­MNG 0.45 0.8 PSM­MNG
0.14 PSM­NG
ALG­MNG+ ALG­MNG+
ALG­NG
ALG­MNG– ALG­MNG–
PSM­MNG
0.35 0.6
ALG­MNG+

0.09 ALG­MNG–

0.25 0.4

0.04   0.15   0.2  

0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
PVI PVI PVI

15
Directional flow with constant-pressure
production
60×220 to
Layer 37  (m /atm.day) Layer 47 (m3/atm.day)
6×22
3
7   8  
Fine Fine
6 PSM­NG 7 PSM­NG
ALG­NG ALG­NG
6
5 ALG­MNG+ ALG­MNG+
ALG­MNG– ALG­MNG–
5
4

Qo DP 3
Qo DP 4

3
2
2

1
1

0  0 
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

2 PVI PSM ALG PSM-NG ALG-NG ALG-MNG–

d (P )C
d (P )C
d (s ) rec
d (s )
rec
d ( s rec )

Layer 37 2.1042 0.1329 0.5553 0.3741 0.3156

Layer 47 0.5096 0.0573 0.4921 0.3408 0.2855

16
 Synthetic channelized system

6 Chen et al. 2004, This permeability model is

4
characterized by high variations from 0.02 to
2
6.5×107mD, a mean of 7×104mD and isotropic
0
normalized correlation lengths varying from 0.05 to 0.5.

0.5 0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1 0.1

0 0 0

rec.
| s ALGNG - - s ref .
| rec .
| s ALGMNG - - s ref .
| rec .
| sPSMNG - s ref . |

17
Application on polymer flooding

18
Upscaling-downscaling for polymer
flood
Recovery Factor
0.35  

0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15 Fine
PSM
0.1
PSM­NG
0.05 ALG
ALG­MNG–
0 
0 0.5 1 1.5

19
Next step

We can compartmentalize the solution of

saturation equation (transport equation) in
the same fashion.

20
 Remarks
 We implemented an upscaling­downscaling scheme for 
incompressible waterflooding simulation with satisfyingly 
accurate result compared to direct gemodel (fine scale ) 
simulation.

 We introduced a simple modification with good 
improvements in downscaling part.

 Use of basis functions in downscaling part can lead to time 
saving in large scale reservoirs without loss of precision of 
original skill courtesy of incompressibility.

21
Thank you for your attention
Questions?