Petroleum Reservoir Simulation Using Super Element Method

This paper describes the theoretical framework and results of using a rapid three-dimensional super element model of oil field development. The model makes it possible to speed up the calculation of two-phase filtration in an oil reservoir by hundreds of times due to the use of large computational cells – super elements, the number of which corresponds to the number of wells in the field. Accuracy of the numerical solution is ensured by a formulation of the problem in terms of the smooth mean fields of pressure and saturation with a selective refinement of the solution in the vicinity of the wells on independent detailed nested grids.