Development of a Thermal Wellbore Simulator with Focus on Improving Heat Loss Calculations for SAGD Steam Injection

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dc.contributor.authorChen, Zhangxing (John)
dc.contributor.authorXiong, Wanqiang
dc.contributor.authorBahonar, Mehdi
dc.contributor.authorDong, Chao
dc.date.accessioned2017-03-13T21:51:09Z
dc.date.available2017-03-13T21:51:09Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractTypical thermal processes involve sophisticated wellbore configurations, complex fluid flow and heat transfer in tubing, annulus, wellbore completion, and surrounding formation. Despite notable advancements made in wellbore modeling, accurate heat loss modeling is still a challenge using the existing wellbore simulators. This challenge becomes even greater when complex but common wellbore configurations such as multi-parallel or multi-concentric tubings are used in thermal processes such as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). To improve heat loss estimation, a standalone fully-implicit thermal wellbore simulator is developed that can handle several different wellbore configurations and completions. This simulator uses a fully implicit method to model heat loss from tubing walls to the surrounding formation. Instead of implementing the common Ramey method (1962) for heat loss calculations that has been shown to be a source of large errors, a series of computational fluid dynamical (CFD) models are run for the buoyancy driven flow for different annulus sizes and lengths and numbers of tubings. Based on these CFD models, correlations are derived that can conveniently be used for the more accurate heat loss estimation from the wellbore to the surrounding formation for SAGD injection wells with single or multiple tubing strings. These correlations are embedded in the developed wellbore simulator and results are compared with other heat loss modeling methods to demonstrate its improvements. A series of validations against commercial simulators and field data are presented in this paper.en_US
dc.description.grantingagencyNSERCen_US
dc.description.refereedYesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipIndustrial consortium in Reservoir Simulation and Modelling; Foundation CMG; Alberta Innovates.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/30181
dc.identifier.grantnumberNSERC: IRCPJ365863-12; AITF: G203000197; AIEES: 3130.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/51850
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineeringen_US
dc.publisher.departmentChemical & Petroleum Engineeringen_US
dc.publisher.facultySchulich School of Engineeringen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries19;305-315
dc.titleDevelopment of a Thermal Wellbore Simulator with Focus on Improving Heat Loss Calculations for SAGD Steam Injectionen_US
dc.typejournal article
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