A fully coupled hydro-thermo-poro-mechanical model for black oil reservoirsimulation

A fully coupled formulation of a hydro-thermo-poro-mechanical model for a t hree-phase black oil reservoir model is presented. The model is based upon the approach proposed by one of the authors which fully couples geomechanic al effects to multiphase flow. Their work is extended here to include non-i sothermal effects. The gas phase contribution to the energy equation has be en neglected based on a set of assumptions. The coupled formulation given h erein differs in several ways when compared to the earlier work and an atte mpt is made to link the flow based formulation and mixture theory. The Fini te Element Method is employed for the numerical treatment and essential alg orithmic implementation is discussed. Numerical examples are presented to p rovide further understanding of the current methodology. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.