Mathematical Modeling of Steam Injection in Vertical Wells - Selected Topics of Computational and Experimental Fluid Mechanics - page 325

Mathematical Modeling of Steam
Injection in Vertical Wells

F. Aguilar-Gastelum and O. Cazarez-Candia

Abstract In this work, a steady-state hydrodynamic model for steam injection
vertical wells and a transient thermal model (2D energy diffusion equation) for the
heat losses from a well towards the porous medium are presented. The hydrodynamic
model is formed by mass, momentum and energy conservation equations (drift-flux
model) for a steam-water two-phase flow. The steady-state drift-flux model was
resolved using the finite differences method and the explicit Godunov scheme, while
the thermal model solution was found with an implicit Godunov scheme. Mod-
els allow predicting the next parameters: pressure, temperature, steam quality, heat
losses and flow patterns along the well. The parameter predictions presented good
agreement against field data and simulations reported in literature. For the conditions
simulated, it was found that: (1) the thermal model reaches its steady state at 500h,
(2) due to few steam condensation, pressure drop due to gravity is smaller than the
friction and acceleration contributions, and (3) temperature gradients are large at the
beginning of steam injection, but they diminish along time.

1 Introduction

Direct Steam injection through vertical wells is a promising technique to improve
oil recovery from reservoirs where natural energy or a primary/secondary recovery
method is not enough to still producing. Some researchers (Ramey 1962 ; Pacheco
and Ali 1972 ;Ali 1981 ; Fontanilla and Aziz 1982 ; Durrant and Thambynayagam
1986 ; Hasan and Kabir 1994 ) have made important investigations into this area,
however, they were not able to get a completely understanding. In order to simu-
late steam injection through vertical wells, Bahonar et al. ( 2009 ) proposed a not-