An Iterative Global Pressure Solution for the Semi-Analytical Simulation of Geological Carbon Sequestration

Successful large-scale implementation of geological CO2 sequestration (GCS) will require the preliminary assessment of multiple potential injection sites. Risk assessment and optimization tools used in this effort typically require large numbers of simulations. This makes it important to choose the appropriate level of complexity when selecting the type of simulation model. A promising multiphase semi-analytical method proposed by [40] to estimate key system attributes (i.e. pressure distribution, CO2 plume extent, and fluid migration) has been found to reduce computational run times by three orders of magnitude when compared to other standard numerical techniques. The premise of the work presented herein is that the existing semi-analytically leakage algorithm proposed by [40] may be further improved in computational efficiency by applying a fixed point type iterative global pressure solution to eliminate the need to solve large sets of linear equations at each time step. Results show that significant gains in computational efficiency are obtained with this new methodology. In addition, this modification provides the same enhancement to similar semi-analytical algorithms that simulate singe-phase injection into multi-layer domains.