[Opm] Implementation in OPM framework of salt precipitation phenomena

[Egberts, P.J.P. (Paul)]

Dear OPM developers,


We, at TNO, are exploring the feasibility of  implementation of certain physics (evaporation, salt precipitation)  in the OPM framework. Currently, however, we are struggling how to proceed best and would appreciate your comments and advice.

Let us first briefly explain background of the problem we are  interested in:
Due to water evaporation near a gas producing well,  salt concentration in the in-situ brine will increase and at certain moment  salt precipitates, and  eventually, as there is continuous entrainment of brine,  salt precipitation can reach a level causing  large  gas production decline  and even full clogging can take place.
This is a huge problem gas operators often have to deal with and is very costly.

We have developed earlier, using Dumux and in collaboration with Dumux developers, successfully  a "near well bore" model  to simulate salt precipitation .
Currently we are investigating if  and how we can incorporate the physics of salt precipitation (or more generally scaling phenomena) into the OPM framework.
Incorporating  such physics in the OPM framework makes in our opinion a useful step towards  the capability of modeling scaling phenomena in a mature reservoir simulator (with its advanced well models and the convenient usability of reading eclipse decks) which cannot be dealt with, for instance, the Eclipse reservoir simulator.

In principle the physics requires a compositional modelling approach (e.g. to model evaporation the gas phase  should consists of multiple components among them H2O) rather than a black-oil modelling approach. We are exploring now the implementation and features of the simulators flow_ebos, flow_solvent, ebos and the ewoms problems (such as the waterairproblem.hh) and try to find out what a good starting point is for our developments.
The ewoms problem set up, at first sight, seems to be the closest with regard to the developments as done with Dumux (such as creating a dedicated brineCH4 fluid system). The incorporation of the physics would therefore be (relatively) easiest in an ewoms problem setup but then we are lacking the important OPM framework features as dealing with eclipse decks, well models, cornerpoint grids etc. A concern we have is that such development (ewoms problem setup) is not so relevant contribution to the OPM community because of the aforementioned missing features and the risk of becoming obsolete in the near future.


We would like to know what OPM framework implementation/simulator would be the appropriate starting point for our developments with regard to
a)      flexibility of implementation of  new physics  (evaporation and salt precipitation).
b)     usefulness to the OPM user community e.g. a future proof implementation route. For that  we would like to understand what is considered to be the  future main line of development with regard to the simulators (flow_ebos, ebos etc...) .
c)      ability to have eclipse input and output for increased usability.

Furthermore are there plans/activities towards developing a compositional reservoir simulator?

Best regards,

Paul Egberts
Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer, TNO
The Netherlands
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