Upstream Differencing for Multiphase Flow in Reservoir Simulation

The authors consider the following problem for equations of n-immiscible incompressible fluids in one-dimensional medium: \[ \phi(\partial S_ \ell/\partial t)+\partial\phi_ \ell/\partial x=0,\;\phi_ \ell=-K k_ \ell(\partial p/\partial x-g_ \ell),\;g_ \ell=\varrho_ \ell g(\partial z/\partial x),\;\ell=1,...,n.\tag{*} \] Here \(S_ \ell(x,t)\), \(p(x,t)\) are unknown saturations and pressure (capillary effects are neglected), \(\phi,K,k_ \ell,\varphi_ \ell,\varrho_ \ell,g,z\) are, respectively, the porosity, the absolute permeability, the mobility, the flow rate, the density, the gravitational constant and the depth at the position \(x\). If the total flow rate \(q=\sum_ \ell\varphi_ \ell\) is given by some boundary condition and \(k_ \ell=k_ \ell(S)\), \(S=(S_ 1,\dots,S_ n)\), then the system (*) can be reduced to the following system of equations for the saturations: \[ \phi(\partial S_ \ell/\partial t)+\partial\varphi_ \ell/\partial x=0,\;\phi_ \ell(S)=\left(\sum\nolimits_ jk_ j(s)\right)^{-1}k_ \ell(s)\left(q+K\sum\nolimits_ j(g_ \ell-g_ j)k_ j(s)\right).\tag{**} \] Let \(x_{i+1/2}\), \(i\in \mathbb{Z}\), the discretization point in space \((h_ i=x_{i+1/2}-x_{i-1/2})\), \(S_{\ell,i}(t)=\text{const}\) on the interval \((x_{i-1/2}, x_{i+1/2})\). The system (**) is semidiscretized in space by: \[ \begin{gathered}\phi_ i(\partial S_{\ell,i}/\partial t)+(1/h_ i)(\varphi_{\ell,i+1/2}- \varphi_{\ell,i-1/2})=0,\\ \varphi_{\ell,i+1/2}=\left(\sum\nolimits_ jk_{j,i+1/2}\right)^{- 1}k_{\ell,i+1/2}\cdot R_{\ell,i+1/2},\\ R_{\ell,i+1/2}\equiv q+k_{i+1/2}\sum\nolimits_ j(g_ \ell-g_ j)k_{j,i+1/2},\end{gathered} \] where \(k_{\ell,i+1/2}\) are calculated using the upstream saturations with respect to the flow of the phase \(\ell: k_{\ell,i+1/2}=k_ \ell(S_ i)\) if \(R_{\ell,i+1/2}>0\) and \(k_{\ell,i+1/2}=k_ \ell(S_{i+1})\) otherwise. The authors show that this scheme is well defined, monotone, Lipschitz-continuous and consistent.

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