Flow

OPM Flow is a fully-implicit, black-oil simulator capable of running industry-standard simulation models. The simulator is implemented using automatic differentiation to enable rapid development of new fluid models.

Validation of Flow for the Norne Field. The 3D plot shows saturation distribution visualized in ResInsight. The line plots show bottom-hole pressures and oil-production rates as computed by Flow (blue lines) and Eclipse 100 (red lines).
Validation of Flow for the Norne Field. The 3D plot shows saturation distribution visualized in ResInsight. The line plots show bottom-hole pressures and oil-production rates as computed by Flow (blue lines) and Eclipse 100 (red lines).

Documentation:

See the page for the OPM Flow manual.

Model formulation:

  • black-oil with dissolved gas and vaporized oil
  • rock-dependent capillary and relative-permeability curves
  • end-point scaling and hysteresis
  • oil vaporization controls (VAPPARS)

Options and variants:

  • easy-to-use CO2STORE option for carbon sequestration in aquifers
  • thermal simulation, temperature dependent properties and heat flow
  • extended black-oil model with gas/water mixing
  • Todd-Longstaff type polymer model with adsorption, dead-pore space, permeability reduction, and shear effects (Flow-polymer)
  • extra component equation(s), such as a solvent model (Flow-solvent)

Description of geology:

  • rectilinear and fully-unstructured grid
  • corner-point grids from Eclipse input, including fault and region multipliers, minpv/pinch, etc

Wells and facilities:

  • bottom-hole pressure, tubing head pressure and surface/reservoir rate constraints
  • group controls
  • shut/stop/open individual completions
  • history-matching and prediction well controls
  • network model for pipe networks

Input/output:

  • general reader/parser for Eclipse input decks
  • XML-based or simple text-format input of additional parameters
  • flexible output of summary and restart files in Eclipse format
  • logging to terminal and print file

Simulation technology:

  • fully-implicit in time
  • two-point flux approximation in space with  upstream-mobility weighting
  • flexible assembly through the use of automatic differentiation
  • Newton and NLDD non-linear solvers
  • block-structured linear solver with ILU0 preconditioner
  • CPR preconditioner and multigrid solver
  • adaptive step-size controls