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Abstract In this paper, we describe an approach to combining a reservoir simulation with 3-D visualization and virtual reality technology. Our prototype VR/visualization system minimizes human-machine interface barriers and provides enhanced control over the simulation, thereby maximizing scientific judgment and use of intuition. We illustrate the practical advantage of using the VR/visualization prototype system in reservoir engineering by visualizing the results of a waterflood in an oil field with a three-dimensional, spatially correlated heterogeneous permeability field. Introduction With the advent of multi-processor computers and the increased use of stochastic methods to characterize heterogeneities, 3-D visualization has become an integral part of modern reservoir simulation. For the most part, however, visualization of simulation results is a post processing step that occurs only after the simulation has run to completion. Given the size and complexity of problems in reservoir engineering, completion of a simulation may take several hours or even days. Often times simulation results are discarded because of errors in input files or because the given input parameters did not give the desired simulation results. In these cases both the reservoir engineer's time and computer time are wasted. In this work, we describe an approach to combining a reservoir simulator with visualization software tools and virtual reality (VR) technology. Our goal is to make simulators easier to use and simulation results easier to understand The benefits of 3-D visualization are fairly well known, however, the visualization environment that we use provides a rich assortment of visualization techniques for examining different aspects of a simulation In addition, VR output technology provides more flexible and convincing ways to view simulation results. The key advantage of the prototype VR/visualization system is that the researcher or reservoir engineer sees the output from the simulation as soon as it has been calculated. This allows early detection of errors in input parameters, poorly formulated reservoir scenarios, and other cases in which unexpected problems arise during the simulation that result in the input needing to be revised and the simulation rerun. P. 233 |
