Method and program for simulating a physical system using object-oriented programming
AssigneeExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
InventorsJames W. Watts, III, Glenn O. Morrell, Jr.
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Abstract
The invention relates to an object-oriented method for simulating a property of at least one fluid in a fluid-containing physical system in which the physical system is represented by a multiplicity of volumetric cells and a multiplicity of connections between cells. The method uses cell-group objects and connection-group objects in the simulation. The invention can optionally comprise additional objects such as an object containing the entire model of the simulation and another object containing a portion of the entire model.
Claims31
A method of predicting a property of at least one fluid in a fluid-containing physical system using an object-oriented program, said method comprises developing classes of simulation objects, said classes of simulation objects comprising cell-group objects and connection-group objects, and running the program in a computer to determine a property of at least one fluid in the physical system as a function of time.
A method of simulating a characteristic of a complex system using an object-oriented program, comprising the steps of:
- (a) discretizing the physical system into a plurality of volumetric cells;
- (b) generating a plurality of connections representative of a cell-to-cell transport phenomenon;
- (c) generating a multiplicity of objects to define the complex system, said objects comprising cell-groups and connection-groups;
- and
- (d) using the objects in an object-oriented simulation program to simulate a characteristic of the complex system.
A method for simulating fluid flow in a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities, said method comprising
- (a) discretizing the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities into a plurality of volumentric cells;
- (b) forming said volumetric cells into groups based on selected characteristics of the cells;
- (c) constructing a cell-group object associated with each said group of cells, said cell-group object containing information required by its associated group of cells;
- (d) defining connections through which fluid can flow and energy can be transported between pairs of said cells;
- (e) assembling sets of equations governing fluid flow and energy transport through the said connections between pairs of cells;
- (f) forming said connections between pairs of cells into groups, each group connecting a pair of cell-group objects;
- (g) constructing a connection-group object associated with each said group of connections, said connection-group object containing information required by its associated group of connections;
- (h) simulating fluid flow and energy transport by using said cell-group objects and connection-group objects to compute properties of fluids contained in each cell and to compute flow of fluids and transport of energy through connections;
- and
- (i) using the simulation results of step (h) to simulate fluid flow in the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities.
A method for simulating fluid flow in a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities, said method comprising
- (a) discretizing the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities into a plurality of volumetric cells;
- (b) forming said volumetric cells into domains;
- (c) forming said volumetric cells within each domain into groups based on selected characteristics of the cells;
- (d) constructing a ceu-group object associated with each said group of cells, said cell-group object containing information required by its associated group of cells;
- (e) defining connections through which fluid can flow and energy can be transported between pairs of said cells;
- (f) assembling sets of equations governing fluid flow and energy transport through the said connections between pairs of cells;
- (g) forming said connections between pairs of cells into groups, each group connecting a pair of cell-group objects;
- (h) constructing a connection-group object associated with each said group of connections, said connection-group object containing information required by its associated group of connections;
- (i) constructing a submodel object associated with each domain of volumetric cells, said submodel object containing the cell-groups belonging to the domain and the connection-groups that either (1) connect cells in a particular cell-group belonging to the domain to other cells in the same cell-group, or (2) connect cells in a particular cell-group belonging to the domain to cells in another cell-group belonging to the domain;
- (j) constructing a model object containing (1) the said submodel objects and (2) the connection-group objects that connect cells in a particular submodel object to cells in another submodel object;
- (k) simulating fluid flow and energy transport using said cell-group, connection-group, submodel, and model objects to compute properties of fluids contained in each cell, to compute flow of fluids and transport of energy through connections;
- and
- (l) using the simulation results of step (k) to simulate fluid flow in the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir and its associated wells and facilities.
A computer-implemented method of simulating a time-varying property of at least one fluid in a fluid-containing physical system, comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving and storing in a computer memory a list of objects, at least some of the objects representing a multiplicity of cell-groups and a multiplicity of connection-groups;
- (b) for a specified simulation time period, using said objects in a simulator to simulate a property of at least one fluid in the physical system;
- and (c) generating output data representing values of said time-varying property.
A computer-readable media tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of predicting a property of at least one fluid in a fluid-containing physical system using object-oriented programming, said method comprising using cell-group objects and connection-group objects.
A computer system for performing simulations using an object-oriented program to predict a property of at least one fluid in a fluid-containing physical system, the system compromising
- (a) a central processing unit (CPU);
- (b) a user interface, which includes means for supporting user selection of simulation parameters at run time;
- (c) a memory store for storing data and object-oriented program code, coupled to the CPU to facilitate execution of the program code stored therein, the memory store storing a set of objects, said objects comprising a plurality of cell-groups and a plurality of connection-groups, and the object-oriented program;
- and
- (d) means for performing a simulation to predict a property of at least one fluid using the set of objects.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.