FrontSim

FrontSim is a three dimensional, three phase blackoil and compositional streamline simulator. The simulator is based on the IMPES (IMplicit Pressure Explicit Saturation) formulation, as used in finite difference simulators, with the primary difference being that fluid transport or saturation movement is solved along one dimensional streamline space. A highly efficient and non-dispersive front-tracking algorithm is used for two phase, immiscible, e.g. oil-water, displacement. Fluid systems described using black oil and compositional schemes are solved using ECLIPSE 300 fully-implicit, adaptive implicit and IMPES solvers. An explicit Guidons type method is also available for three phase black oil fluids.

The primary strengths of streamline simulation are a) cost-effective modeling and flow simulation on very high resolution and/or extremely large models with multi-million cells, b) reduction of numerical dispersion and grid orientation effects, and c) direct quantification of producer/injector relationships. Invaluable applications ranging from model screening/ranking, uncertainty quantification, history matching to waterflood optimization and IOR feasibility are being done regularly in the petroleum industry using FrontSim.