Ultrasonic method for measuring water holdup of low velocity and high-water-cut oil-water two-phase flow

Oil reservoirs with low permeability and porosity that are in the middle and late exploitation periods in China’s onshore oil fields are mostly in the high-water-cut production stage. This stage is associated with severely non-uniform local-velocity flow profiles and dispersed-phase concentration (of oil droplets) in oil-water two-phase flow, which makes it difficult to measure water holdup in oil wells. In this study, we use an ultrasonic method based on a transmission-type sensor in oil-water two-phase flow to measure water holdup in low-velocity and high water-cut conditions. First, we optimize the excitation frequency of the ultrasonic sensor by calculating the sensitivity of the ultrasonic field using the finite element method for multiphysics coupling. Then we calculate the change trend of sound pressure level attenuation ratio with the increase in oil holdup to verify the feasibility of the employed diameter for the ultrasonic sensor. Based on the results, we then investigate the effects of oil-droplet diameter and distribution on the ultrasonic field. To further understand the measurement characteristics of the ultrasonic sensor, we perform a flow loop test on vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow and measure the responses of the optimized ultrasonic sensor. The results show that the ultrasonic sensor yields poor resolution for a dispersed oil slug in water flow (D OS/W flow), but the resolution is favorable for dispersed oil in water flow (D O/W flow) and very fine dispersed oil in water flow (VFD O/W flow). This research demonstrates the potential application of a pulsed-transmission ultrasonic method for measuring the fraction of individual components in oil-water two-phase flow with a low mixture velocity and high water cut.     

Intelligent fuzzy weighted input estimation method for the multi-story buildings with unknown ground motion acceleration

This paper presents a novel intelligent fuzzy weighted input estimation method which effiviently and robustly estimates the unknown ground motion accelerations. The new input estimation method includes the Kalman Filter (KF) and the recursive least square estimator (RLSE), which is weighted by the fuzzy weighting factor proposed based on the fuzzy logic inference system. By directly synthesizing the Kalman filter with the estimator, this work presents an efficient robust forgetting zone, which is capable of providing a reasonable compromise between the tracking capability and the flexibility against noises. The excellent performace of this inverse method is demonstrated by solving the earthquake-excitation estimation problem, and the proposed algorithm is compared by alternating between the constant and adaptive weighting factors. The results reveal that this method has the properties of better target tracking capability and more effective noise reduction.     

基于MDT测试资料的储层油水界面自动提取方法研究

通过对MDT地层压力数据以及地层压力梯度线形态的分析,提出了利用三次样条插值函数将有限个数据点的地层压力梯度线进行深度等间距采样,以得到连续分布的地层压力梯度线.在抛物线形式的地层压力梯度线上,油水界面对应于该抛物线的顶点.根据最大值原理可以在地层压力梯度线上提取油藏油水界面深度,利用Fortran语言编制了相应的计算机程序,实现了油藏油水界面自动提取的目的.利用该程序可以减小油田现场处理过程中带入的额外误差,节省操作人员的处理时间,减少工作量.实际应用表明,该方法是可靠的,计算结果完全符合油田储量计算的误差标准,利用其获取的结果真实有效.     

The relationship between oil droplet size and upper ocean turbulence

Oil spilled at sea often forms oil droplets in stormy conditions. This paper examines possible mechanisms which generate the oil droplets. When droplet Reynolds numbers are large, the dynamic pressure force of turbulent flows is the cause of droplet breakup. Using dimensional analysis, Hinze (1955, A.I.Ch.E. Journal 1, 289–295) obtained a formula for the maximum size of oil droplets that can survive the pressure force. When droplet Reynolds numbers are small, however, viscous shear associated with small turbulent eddies is the cause of breakup. For the shear mechanism, we obtain estimates of droplet size as a function of energy dissipation rate, the ratio of oil-to-water viscosity and the surface tension coefficient.

The two formulae are applied to oil spills in the ocean. At dissipation rates expected in breaking waves, the pressure force is the dominant breakup mechanism and can generate oil droplets with radii of hundreds of microns. However, when chemical dispersants are used to treat an oil slick and significantly reduce the oil-water interfacial tension, viscous shear is the dominant breakup mechanism and oil droplets with radii of tens of microns can be generated. Viscous shear is also the mechanism for disintegrating water-in-oil emulsions and the size of a typical emulsion blob is estimated to be tens of millimeters.     

Optimal weighting in the finite difference solution of the convection-dispersion equation

Oscillation and numerical dispersion limit the reliability of numerical solutions of the convection-dispersion equation when finite difference methods are used. To eliminate oscillation and reduce the numerical dispersion, an optimal upstream weighting with finite differences is proposed. The optimal values of upstream weighting coefficients numerically obtained are a function of the mesh Peclet number used. The accuracy of the proposed numerical method is tested against two classical problems for which analytical solutions exist. The comparison of the numerical results obtained with different numerical schemes and those obtained by the analytical solutions demonstrates the possibility of a real gain in precision using the proposed optimal weighting method. This gain in precision is verified by interpreting a tracer experiment performed in a laboratory column.     

鄂尔多斯盆地中东部长6复杂低渗储层测井评价

开展复杂低渗储层特征、测井响应及其控制因素分析,有助于储层评价与油水层识别.鄂尔多斯盆地中东部长6期沉积具多物源供给、沉积相带频繁变化的特点,来自不同物源的沉积砂体岩石碎屑成分存在明显差异.长7、长6沉积期盆地周边的火山作用,致使一些地区的长6砂体具有相对高放射性特征.长6储层孔隙类型多样,孔隙结构特征复杂多变,再加上地层水系统的变化,致使一些油区长6低电阻率油层与常规油层、高电阻率水层与常规水层共存.研究结果表明,成藏动力与阻力的对比关系决定了在同一砂体中除存在常规油水分布外,还可能存在油水倒置分布.因此,加强钴前预测、钻井过程监督与调整、钻后综合研究、生产实践检验、解释模型与参数调整、老井复查等,有利于识别油水层,整体把握油水分布规律.     

Studies of the formation process of water-in-oil emulsions

This paper summarizes studies to determine the formation process of water-in-oil emulsions and the stability of such emulsions formed in the laboratory and in a large test tank. These studies have confirmed that water-in-oil mixtures can be grouped into four states: stable emulsions, unstable water-in-oil mixtures, mesostable emulsions, and entrained water. These states are differentiated by rheological properties as well as by differences in visual appearance. The viscosity of a stable emulsion at a shear rate of one reciprocal second is about three orders of magnitude greater than that of the starting oil. An unstable emulsion usually has a viscosity no more than about 20 times greater than that of the starting oil. A stable emulsion has a significant elasticity, whereas an unstable emulsion does not. A mesostable emulsion has properties between stable and unstable, but breaks down within a few days of standing. The usual situation is that emulsions are either obviously stable, mesostable, or unstable. Entrained water, water suspended in oil by viscous forces alone, is also evident. Very few emulsions have questionable stability. Analytical techniques were developed to test these observations.

The type of emulsion produced is determined primarily by the properties of the starting oil. The most important of these properties are the asphaltene and resin content and the viscosity of the oil. The composition and property ranges of the starting oil that would be required to form each of the water-in-oil states are discussed in this paper.     

Reservoir permeability prediction by neural networks combined with hybrid genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization

Reservoir characterization involves describing different reservoir properties quantitatively using various techniques in spatial variability. Nevertheless, the entire reservoir cannot be examined directly and there still exist uncertainties associated with the nature of geological data. Such uncertainties can lead to errors in the estimation of the ultimate recoverable oil. To cope with uncertainties, intelligent mathematical techniques to predict the spatial distribution of reservoir properties appear as strong tools. The goal here is to construct a reservoir model with lower uncertainties and realistic assumptions. Permeability is a petrophysical property that relates the amount of fluids in place and their potential for displacement. This fundamental property is a key factor in selecting proper enhanced oil recovery schemes and reservoir management. In this paper, a soft sensor on the basis of a feed‐forward artificial neural network was implemented to forecast permeability of a reservoir. Then, optimization of the neural network‐based soft sensor was performed using a hybrid genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization method. The proposed genetic method was used for initial weighting of the parameters in the neural network. The developed methodology was examined using real field data. Results from the hybrid method‐based soft sensor were compared with the results obtained from the conventional artificial neural network. A good agreement between the results was observed, which demonstrates the usefulness of the developed hybrid genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization in prediction of reservoir permeability.     

The formulation of an effective demulsifier for oil spill emulsions

The formation of stable sea water-in-crude oil emulsions after an oil spill was first reported after the Torrey Canyon wreck in 1967. The problem of handling this stable water (65%)-in-oil (35%) emulsion rather than oil is evidenced in the additional expensive on-site storage requirement as well as the handling difficulty with the viscous semi-solid emulsion. This paper details the results of an R&D program that has established the mechanism for the formation of this emulsion. This insight enabled a specific effective chemical demulsifier to be formulated. A treatment technique was devised that entails injecting the demulsifier into the oil spill emulsion as it is skimmed from the water surface. The emulsion is then rapidly separated into water-free oil and a clean-water phase that can be decanted back into the sea. Full-scale tests were successfully conducted by JBF Scientific Corp. using two types of commercial JBF DIP skimmers in a small concrete lined pond.     

The bound weighted average method (BWAM) for predicting S-wave velocity

The shear-wave velocity is a very important parameter in oil and gas seismic exploration, and vital in prestack elastic-parameters inversion and seismic attribute analysis. However, shearing-velocity logging is seldom carried out because it is expensive. This paper presents a simple method for predicting S-wave velocity which covers the basic factors that influence seismic wave propagation velocity in rocks. The elastic modulus of a rock is expressed here as a weighted arithmetic average between Voigt and Reuss bounds, where the weighting factor, w, is a measurement of the geometric details of the pore space and mineral grains. The S-wave velocity can be estimated from w, which is derived from the P-wave modulus. The method is applied to process well-logging data for a carbonate reservoir in Sichuan Basin, and shows the predicted S-wave velocities agree well with the measured S-wave velocities.     

胜利油田油水井动态与华北地震关系的初步分析

近些年来,在收集总结大量复杂多样的地震前兆资料中,油水井动态异常以其变化量显著而引人注目。本文以近几年华北地区所发生的地震为实例,旨在分析研究胜利油田油水井的产油量、产液量、油水井压力(地层压力)在震前震后的变化规律。     

Steady- and transient-state inversion in hydrogeology by successive flux estimation

A calibration method to solve the groundwater inverse problem under steady- and transient-state conditions is presented. The method compares kriged and numerical head field gradients to modify hydraulic conductivity without the use of non-linear optimization techniques. The process is repeated iteratively until a close match with piezometric data is reached. The approach includes a damping factor to avoid divergence and oscillation of the solution in areas of low hydraulic gradient and a weighting factor to account for temporal head variation in transient simulations. The efficiency of the method in terms of computing time and calibration results is demonstrated with a synthetic field. It is shown that the proposed method provides parameter fields that reproduce both hydraulic conductivity and piezometric data in few forward model solutions. Stochastic numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of the method to the damping function and to the head field estimation errors.     

Merging multiple precipitation sources for flash flood forecasting

We investigated the effectiveness of combining gauge observations and satellite-derived precipitation on flood forecasting. Two data merging processes were proposed: the first one assumes that the individual precipitation measurement is non-bias, while the second process assumes that each precipitation source is biased and both weighting factor and bias parameters are to be calculated. Best weighting factors as well as the bias parameters were calculated by minimizing the error of hourly runoff prediction over Wu-Tu watershed in Taiwan. To simulate the hydrologic response from various sources of rainfall sequences, in our experiment, a recurrent neural network (RNN) model was used.

The results demonstrate that the merged method used in this study can efficiently combine the information from both rainfall sources to improve the accuracy of flood forecasting during typhoon periods. The contribution of satellite-based rainfall, being represented by the weighting factor, to the merging product, however, is highly related to the effectiveness of ground-based rainfall observation provided gauged. As the number of gauge observations in the basin is increased, the effectiveness of satellite-based observation to the merged rainfall is reduced. This is because the gauge measurements provide sufficient information for flood forecasting; as a result the improvements added on satellite-based rainfall are limited. This study provides a potential advantage for extending satellite-derived precipitation to those watersheds where gauge observations are limited.     

基于压缩感知和宽带俞式低通整形滤波器的地震低频信息特征分析与补偿

碳酸盐岩储集层已成为世界石油新发现储量的重要组成部分,识别该类储层对地震数据的信噪比、分辨率以及成像精度提出了更高的要求.本文从地震低频信号缺失的问题出发,首先研究了低频信号缺失对子波、合成地震记录和波阻抗反演的影响,其次分析了深层碳酸盐岩裂缝储层中弱信号低频缺失的特征.针对低频信号缺失问题,本文利用压缩感知理论,并结合反射系数的稀疏特性,提出了自适应计算L1范数权重因子的方法,同时构建了改进的宽带俞式低通整形滤波器,在不影响地震高频信号的同时对地震弱信号进行低频补偿.结果表明,缺失低频信号,会使子波旁瓣变大,合成记录出现假同相轴,厚层波阻抗反演畸变,深层碳酸盐岩裂缝储层弱信号难以识别;而本文方法有效地补偿了深层碳酸盐岩裂缝储层弱信号10Hz以下的频率成分,使得波组反射特征更加清晰,深层弱信号成像质量得到改善,为进一步有效识别深层碳酸盐岩裂缝储层建立了基础.     

Sediment penetration of Amoco Cadiz oil,potential for future release,and toxicity

Weathering states of oil ranging from sheen oil to mousse have significant effects during oil stranding on oil-water and oil-sediment interaction. Observations of oiled sandy beaches suggest two mechanisms of beach contamination—general penetration and contamination of beach substrate by films of sheen oil (probably partially emulsified), and secondly the burial of discrete layers of mousse. Depending on timing of oiling with respect to beach dynamics large amounts of stranded oil can be accommodated within beach sediments. These then become available for later long-term release.Acute lethal toxicity of stranded Amoco Cadiz oil is intermediate to Bunker C and Kuwait crude. Simulated weathering studies suggest that there may be some increase in toxicity with weathering.     

可变点约束叠前流体因子直接提取方法

以Gassmann流体因子(Gassmann Fluid Item,GFI)为目标,提出了一种流体因子直接提取的新方法.首先,以贝叶斯反演框架为基础,将似然函数、先验信息以及Gassmann流体因子近似方程相结合,得到初始的目标函数;其次,进一步在初始目标函数中加入可变数量的点约束信息,并得到最终的目标函数;最后,通过求解该目标函数,就直接提取出了Gassmann流体因子.该方法的主要特点是不需要初始模型的参与,而是通过一个约束模型来控制提取结果的稳定性和准确性,并且可以从约束模型中选定不同数量的约束点进行约束,称为可变点约束.给出并讨论了三种常用的不同点约束模式和原则,并用模型说明了它们不同的约束效果.模型验证和实际应用结果皆以表明,该方法即使在叠前数据信噪比很低的情况下也能较好地提取出Gassmann流体因子,流体因子提取结果客观性高、稳定性好,并且能够与已知的流体解释结果很好地匹配,益于进一步推广应用.     

K油田开发中的砂体成像及油藏描述

K油田位于哈萨克斯坦南图尔盖盆地阿克赛隆起带上,主要产层为白垩系底砂岩及侏罗系河道砂。油田区南北跨度较大,油藏类型多样,砂体边界识别困难。该油田在2000年之后逐步投入开发,但在开发过程中发现相邻井的出油情况差异较大,油水关系复杂,油田需要提高对油藏的识别精度来应对新一轮增储上产及井网调整问题。利用敏感属性分析、3D可视化模块、地质统计反演等技术,重新认识和评价了K区油藏特征,识别区内多个独立油藏,厘清油藏间的油水关系,总结该区不同油藏类型的含油气规律,就目前困扰K油田勘探开发工作的问题给出解答。     

用格点尝试法求解P波初动震源机制解及解的质量评价

P波初动符号物理图像明确,是稳定的地震波信息.在资料充分时,可以较好地确定震源机制解.网格搜索法是目前流行的利用P波初动符号求解地震震源机制解的方法.不过,在实际观测资料不充分时,虽然较迭代算法优越,但网格搜索法依然有较大的不确定性.到目前为止,人们还没有找到合理的解决方案,极大地制约了这一类方法的应用.针对这一现状,本文在许忠淮提出的格点尝试法的基础上对网格搜索法进行了几个方面的改进.首先,采用新的加权方法计算加权矛盾比：权重因子包括反映初动符号质量的权重以体现资料质量的影响;不包括反映观测点与节面距离的权重以避免因节面附近资料权重的双重减小带来的系统偏差;通过减小震源球上密集资料点的权重以部分地抵消震源球上P波初动符号资料分布不均匀对可能解的影响.在通过加权矛盾比筛选可能的震源机制解时,把震源球分为面积相对均匀的网格进行解的搜索,避免了因网格划分不均匀所导致的平均解的计算偏差.针对资料不足情况下震源机制解会受控于个别观测点P波初动符号的情况,我们借鉴杰克刀（jackknife）技术,在可选解中增加了那些一个观测点被去除后的可选解,既对解的质量有了更好的把握,又增加了找到真解的可能性.进一步地,针对可选解存在多个解簇的情况,本文提出了通过聚类提供多组可选解的做法.最后,针对目前缺乏对解的合理评价体系的现状,提出了主要基于解的离散度并参考加权最小矛盾比对震源机制解质量进行评价的新方案.     

Analysis of floodplain inundation using 2D nonlinear diffusive wave equation solved with splitting technique

In the paper a solution of two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear diffusive wave equation in a partially dry and wet domain is considered. The splitting technique which allows to reduce 2D problem into the sequence of one-dimensional (1D) problems is applied. The obtained 1D equations with regard to x and y are spatially discretized using the modified finite element method with the linear shape functions. The applied modification referring to the procedure of spatial integration leads to a more general algorithm involving a weighting parameter. Time integration is carried out using a two-level difference scheme with the weighting parameter as well. The resulting tri-diagonal systems of nonlinear algebraic equations are solved using the Picard iterative method. For particular sets of the weighting parameters, the proposed method takes the form of a standard finite element method and various schemes of the finite difference method. On the other hand, for the linear version of the governing equation, the proper values of the weighting parameters ensure an approximation of 3rd order. Since the diffusive wave equation can be solved no matter whether the area is dry or wet, the numerical computations can be carried out over entire domain of solution without distinguishing a current position of the shoreline which is obtained as a result of solution.     

A new finite element technique for the solution of two-phase flow through porous media

A new upstream weighting finite element technique is developed for improved solution of the two-phase immiscible flow equations. Unlike the upstream weighting technique used by previous investigators, the new technique does not employ finite difference concepts to achieve the required upstream weighting of relative permeabilities or mobilities. Instead, upstream weighting is achieved by (1) representing the relative permeabilities or mobilities as continuous functions expressed in terms of the shape functions and nodal values (2) using asymmetric weighting functions to weight the spatial terms in the flow equations. These weighting functions are constructed such that they are dependent on the flow direction along each side of an element.In conjunction with the proposed technique, two solution schemes for treating the resulting set of non-linear algebraic equations are presented. These are the fully-implicit chord slope incremental solution scheme and the Newton-Raphson solution scheme. Both schemes allow the use of large time steps without being unstable.The proposed numerical technique is applied to two problems (1) the one-dimensional Buckley-Leverett problem (2) the two-dimensional five-spot well flow problem. Results indicate that this technique is superior to not only earlier finite element schemes but also five-point upstream finite difference formulae.