An Improved Streamline-Generating Technique That Uses the Boundary (Integral) Element Method

Abstract

Summary The boundary element method (BEM) has been used to generate streamlines for homogeneous and sectionally homogeneous reservoirs having irregular boundaries. This technique is superior to earlier methods that use "image wells" to simulate the reservoir boundary, especially for cases where the reservoir boundary is irregularly shaped. It has wider applicability to different kinds of reservoirs and eliminates the need for trial-and-error solutions. The errors caused by discretization and numerical approximation arise on and adjacent to the boundaries only, therefore the pressures and pressure gradients on which the streamlines are derived can be calculated with very high accuracy in the interior of the reservoir. Thus, the streamlines generated with this method are expected to be more realistic and representative of the actual physical system.