Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling

Modeling fluid flow in porous media is a valuable and essential tool for develop­ing underground resources such as hydrocarbon reservoirs, groundwater aquifers, or CO₂ sequestration projects. The modeling, if done accurately, can provide a reliable forecast of future fluid behavior. However, the pro...

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Main Author: Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed
Other Authors: Morgan, Frank Dale
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2023
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150179
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author Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed
author2 Morgan, Frank Dale
author_facet Morgan, Frank Dale
Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed
author_sort Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed
collection MIT
description Modeling fluid flow in porous media is a valuable and essential tool for develop­ing underground resources such as hydrocarbon reservoirs, groundwater aquifers, or CO₂ sequestration projects. The modeling, if done accurately, can provide a reliable forecast of future fluid behavior. However, the properties of the porous media and the correct solutions to the physics equations describing the macroscopic fluid flow are essential to ensure accurate modeling and, consequently, reliable forecasts. Therefore, the need to discretize the porous mediums into a large number of grids is often crucial to capture the observed data's behavior. And because the data has a low abundance spatially, it is impossible to model the fluid flow uniquely. In the thesis, we study ways to transform the modeling of fluid flow in porous media into a less non-unique problem by exploring different models and data spaces. By reducing the number of grids, we quantitatively demonstrate the possibility of producing more accurate rep­resentations of reservoirs. Also, through the resolution matrix analysis and the use of Shannon information entropy, we developed a method to acquire data adaptively for an optimum survey design. Additional data sets from self-potential or seismic surveys have complemented the fluid flow data in different joint inversion methods. sing self­-potential data allows the detection of fractures with higher confidence. The seismic data was used in a cross-gradient joint inversion scheme to constrain the inversion of fluid flow data. The joint inversion helped in around 16% reduction in the seismic velocity root-mean-square-error (RMSE) and almost 26% decrease in the permeability RMSE.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1501792023-04-01T03:50:04Z Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed Morgan, Frank Dale Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Modeling fluid flow in porous media is a valuable and essential tool for develop­ing underground resources such as hydrocarbon reservoirs, groundwater aquifers, or CO₂ sequestration projects. The modeling, if done accurately, can provide a reliable forecast of future fluid behavior. However, the properties of the porous media and the correct solutions to the physics equations describing the macroscopic fluid flow are essential to ensure accurate modeling and, consequently, reliable forecasts. Therefore, the need to discretize the porous mediums into a large number of grids is often crucial to capture the observed data's behavior. And because the data has a low abundance spatially, it is impossible to model the fluid flow uniquely. In the thesis, we study ways to transform the modeling of fluid flow in porous media into a less non-unique problem by exploring different models and data spaces. By reducing the number of grids, we quantitatively demonstrate the possibility of producing more accurate rep­resentations of reservoirs. Also, through the resolution matrix analysis and the use of Shannon information entropy, we developed a method to acquire data adaptively for an optimum survey design. Additional data sets from self-potential or seismic surveys have complemented the fluid flow data in different joint inversion methods. sing self­-potential data allows the detection of fractures with higher confidence. The seismic data was used in a cross-gradient joint inversion scheme to constrain the inversion of fluid flow data. The joint inversion helped in around 16% reduction in the seismic velocity root-mean-square-error (RMSE) and almost 26% decrease in the permeability RMSE. Ph.D. 2023-03-31T14:37:53Z 2023-03-31T14:37:53Z 2023-02 2023-02-16T18:22:52.518Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150179 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Al Nasser, Saleh Mohammed
Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title_full Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title_fullStr Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title_full_unstemmed Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title_short Mitigating the Problem of Non-uniqueness in Fluid-flow Modeling
title_sort mitigating the problem of non uniqueness in fluid flow modeling
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150179
work_keys_str_mv AT alnassersalehmohammed mitigatingtheproblemofnonuniquenessinfluidflowmodeling