Method, system and program storage device for simulating fluid flow in a physical system using a dynamic composition based extensible object-oriented architecture

A system for simulating the flow of fluid in a physical system using a composition-based extensible object-oriented program, the system comprising:

• one or more processor units;
• said system comprising one or more programs which cause said one or more processor units to execute steps comprising:
• (a) accessing a composition-based extensible object-oriented program, the program comprising:
• (i) a framework subsystem comprising a graph package which comprises one or more graph package classes for representing one or more edges and one or more nodes of one or more grid cells used for modeling the physical system, a compute package which comprises one or more compute package classes for computing property values, and a property package which comprises one or more property package classes for storing node or edge property values associated with the one or more grid cells;
• (ii) an engine subsystem comprising one or more engine subsystem packages for performing numerical simulation, the engine subsystem comprising a linear solver package and a non-linear solver package;
• and
• (iii) one or more model components providing physical and numerical modeling behaviors utilized by the engine subsystem, the one or more model components comprising at least one of a reservoir model, a well model, an aquifer model, a fluid model and a SCAL model;
• wherein the one or more model components comprises an interface class;
• wherein said interface class of said one or more model components composes one or more interface implementation classes;
• wherein the one or more model components have a composition-based relationship with at least one of the framework subsystem and the engine subsystem;
• wherein a call from at least one of the framework and the engine subsystem to said interface class of said one or more model components to perform an operation is forwarded to said one or more interface implementation classes of said one or more model components, thereby maintaining separate the type of connection of said interface class of said one or more model components from the computation type of said interface class of said one or more model components;
• wherein the engine subsystems creates one or more model objects representative of the physical system;
• wherein the one or more model components communicates with the framework subsystem to create instances of the graph package classes, thereby providing graph objects, instances of the compute package classes, thereby providing compute objects, and instances of the property package classes, thereby providing property objects;
• wherein the property objects have property values;
• wherein the graph objects represent one or more edges and one or more nodes of one or more grid cells for modeling the physical system, the graph objects having at least one index of each said node and at least one index of each said edge, and wherein said indices of said nodes and edges are used to access property values stored in the property objects;
• wherein the compute objects compute property values for the property objects by iterating over the at least one index of each said node and the at least one index of each said edge represented by the graph objects;
• and
• wherein the non-linear solver package interacts with the one or more model components and the linear solver packages to simulate the flow of fluid through the physical system;
• (b) running the composition-based extensible object-oriented program on a computer system to simulate fluid flow in the physical system,
• wherein at least one compute package class of said compute package comprises an interface class;
• wherein said interface class of said at least one compute package class composes one or more interface implementation classes;
• wherein said one or more interface implementation classes of said at least one compute package class comprise one or more implementation class specializations of one or more model components for computing said fluid flow;
• wherein a call to said interface class of said at least one compute package class to perform an operation during said running of said program is forwarded to said one or more implementation class specializations;
• and
• wherein said one or more implementation class specializations perform computations associated with said operation on said graph objects;
• and
• (c) outputting to a user interface device, a computer readable storage medium, a monitor, a user-accessible local computer, or a user-accessible computer that is part of a network, a simulation of fluid flow from step (b).

A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer having one or more processor units, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer program mechanism encoded thereon, wherein said computer program mechanism can be loaded into said computer and cause the one or more processor units of the computer to execute steps comprising:

• (a) accessing a composition-based extensible object-oriented program, the program comprising:
• (i) a framework subsystem comprising a graph package which comprises one or more graph package classes for representing one or more edges and one or more nodes of one or more grid cells used for modeling the physical system, a compute package which comprises one or more compute package classes for computing property values, and a property package which comprises one or more property package classes for storing node or edge property values associated with the one or more grid cells;
• (ii) an engine subsystem comprising one or more engine subsystem packages for performing numerical simulation, the engine subsystem comprising a linear solver package and a non-linear solver package;
• and
• (iii) one or more model components providing physical and numerical modeling behaviors utilized by the engine subsystem, the one or more model components comprising at least one of a reservoir model, a well model, an aquifer model, a fluid model and a SCAL model;
• wherein the one or more model components comprises an interface class;
• wherein said interface class of said one or more model components composes one or more interface implementation classes;
• wherein the one or more model components have a composition-based relationship with at least one of the framework subsystem and the engine subsystem;
• wherein a call from at least one of the framework and the engine subsystem to said interface class of said one or more model components to perform an operation is forwarded to said one or more interface implementation classes of said one or more model components, thereby maintaining separate the type of connection of said interface class of said one or more model components from the computation type of said interface class of said one or more model components;
• wherein the engine subsystems creates one or more model objects representative of the physical system;
• wherein the one or more model components communicates with the framework subsystem to create instances of the graph package classes, thereby providing graph objects, instances of the compute package classes, thereby providing compute objects, and instances of the property package classes, thereby providing property objects;
• wherein the property objects have property values;
• wherein the graph objects represent one or more edges and one or more nodes of one or more grid cells for modeling the physical system, the graph objects having at least one index of each said node and at least one index of each said edge, and wherein said indices of said nodes and edges are used to access property values stored in the property objects;
• wherein the compute objects compute property values for the property objects by iterating over the at least one index of each said node and the at least one index of each said edge represented by the graph objects;
• and
• wherein the non-linear solver package interacts with the one or more model components and the linear solver packages to simulate the flow of fluid through the physical system;
• (b) running the composition-based extensible object-oriented program on a computer system to simulate fluid flow in the physical system,
• wherein at least one compute package class of said compute package comprises an interface class;
• wherein said interface class of said at least one compute package class composes one or more interface implementation classes;
• wherein said one or more interface implementation classes of said at least one compute package class comprise one or more implementation class specializations of one or more model components for computing said fluid flow;
• wherein a call to said interface class of said at least one compute package class to perform an operation during said running of said program is forwarded to said one or more implementation class specializations;
• and
• wherein said one or more implementation class specializations perform computations associated with said operation on said graph objects;
• and
• (c) outputting to a user interface device, a computer readable storage medium, a monitor, a user-accessible local computer, or a user-accessible computer that is part of a network, a simulation of fluid flow from step (b).