Infinite Element Modeling of Heat Losses During Thermal Recovery Processes

This paper reports on preliminary investigations into the application of recently developed ‘infinite elements’ for modelling heat losses from a reservoir during thermal recovery techniques. The infinite elements were chosen for their ease of incorporation into an efficient alternating-direction finite element simulator. The numerical examples presented are based on modelling the simplest non-isothermal displacement process, i.e. hot-waterflooding, but the techniques demonstrated may be extended to the simulation of more sophisticated processes such as (cyclical) steam-flooding and in-situ combustion.