Study of compositional multiphase flow formulation using complementarity conditions

Abstract

In this article, two formulations of multiphase compositional Darcy flows taking into account phase transitions are compared. The first formulation is the so-called natural variable formulation commonly used in reservoir simulation, the second has been introduced by Lauser et al. and uses the phase pressures, saturations and component fugacities as main unknowns. We will discuss how the Coats and the Lauser approaches can be used to solve a compositional multiphase flow problem with cubic equations of state of Peng and Robinson. Then, we will study the results of several synthetic cases that are representative of petroleum reservoir engineering problems and we will compare their numerical behavior.