Development and application of a highly implicit multi-dimensional polymer injection simulator

A new three-phase (four component) polymer injection numerical model has been developed. The saturations and pressure distributions are obtained from a fully implicit formulation using Newton's Method with the Jacobian being calculated numerically. The block centered grid employing the five-point finite difference scheme is used in the numerical model. The concentration of the polymer component and the adsorption of the polymer on the reservoir rock were calculated explicitly employing the method of Cascade. The results of this study were compared and verified with the following three cases that have been reported in the literature: 1) Sweep efficiencies at three reciprocals of mobility ratios obtained from this study were compared to those published by Dyes, Caudle and Erickson (1) for one quarter of a five-spot pattern. 2) Testing the model as a one-dimensional linear, incompressible, two-phase model. The data used for this comparison were those of Bondor, Hirasaki and Tham (2). 3) Testing the present model as a three-phase, three-dimensional black-oil simulator to simulate gas injection in a heterogeneous reservoir. The model was used to determine how the results obtained would compare to those reported by Odeh (3).