Three-dimensional finite element simulation of three-phase flow in a deforming fissured reservoir Original Research Article

The development of a capacity to predict the exploitation of structurally complicated and fractured oil reservoirs is essential for the rational use of investment capital. A poor understanding of how the reservoir behaves during production may lead to inept, costly and inefficient development schemes. The mathematical formulation of a three-phase, three-dimensional fluid flow and rock deformation in fractured reservoirs is hence presented. The present formulation, consisting of both the equilibrium and multiphase mass conservation equations, accounts for the significant influence of coupling between the fluid flow and solid deformation, an aspect usually ignored in the reservoir simulation literature. A Galerkin-based finite element method is applied to discretise the governing equations in space and a finite difference scheme is used to march the solution in time. The final set of equations, which contain the additional cross coupling terms as compared to similar existing models, are highly non-linear and the elements of the coefficient matrices are updated implicitly during each iteration in terms of the independent variables. A field scale example is employed as an alpha case to test the validity and robustness of the currently formulation and numerical scheme. The results illustrate a significantly different behaviour for the case of a reservoir where the impact of coupling is also considered.