Sharp and Diffuse Fronts in Oil Reservoirs: Front Tracking and Capillarity
James G. Glimm, Brent Lindquist, Oliver A. McBryan, Grétar Tryggvason · 2018
A fingering interface instability occurs in laboratory studies of flow oil reservoirs. The phenomenon has been captured numerically in a series of papers by the authors and co-workers. The solution of a 20 year old problem posed by Rachford is the lastest in this line of work, and will be discussed here. Multiple well field scale reservoir studies are presented here using the front tracking method. Since these field scale problems are normally plagues with grids which are coarse in comparison to the details of wells, fronts and geological layers, the potential advantage for the front tracking method, with an increased resolution is considerable for this problem. The solution of a major problem in the front tracking method was required to obtain the multi-well studies presented here. These studies involve complex and convoluted interfaces due to the merger and pinch off of colliding interfaces. These changes in interface topology are accomplished with the aid of an untangling algorithm and with a knowledge of the relevant elementary waves and Riemann problem solutions in two dimensions, also discussed here. The conclusion is that front tracking can handle messy practical problems much more complex than those previously studied by the authors, which focusedmore » on scientific benchmarks in idealized situations where comparison solutions were known.« less