Non-Darcy flow of oil above bubble point
In blowout simulations of proposed (not yet drilled) oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico (Worst Case Discharge, aka WCD) a simple radial reservoir simulation model is assumed and flowing pressure bottom hole pressures are calculated. The rates often are very large (<200,000 BOPD). All commercial reservoir simulators are formulated using Darcy's Law which is limited to laminar flow. The problem with using these simulators is that a significant error in flowing bottom-hole pressure is realized due to the simulator not being able to model turbulent flow in the porous media in the near wellbore vicinity. Estimates of the Reynold's number in this near wellbore region indicate turbulent flow is occurring. As a result of errors in estimating bottom-hole pressure, inaccurate flowing pressure gradients result. These flowing pressure gradients are used as input in determine collapse of proposed casing strings.
Can Tough2 model turbulent flow in porous media for a liquid (e.g. oil above bubble point)?
2 replies
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Hi Lee,
Not sure whether you are talking about the reservoir model or wellbore model. Standard TOUGH2 cannot simulate non-Darcy flow, but both iTOUGH2 and TOUGH+ have the Forchheimer equation with various beta functions implemented, and T2WELL handles turbulent flow in the wellbore. See the respective manuals.
Best,
Stefan