Simulation study of density-driven natural convection mechanism in isotropic and anisotropic brine aquifers using a black oil reservoir simulator

Abstract For simulation models of density-driven natural convection in brine aquifers gravitational instabilities are usually triggered by numerical round off errors. Using this method for initiating onset of convective flow, simulation results show that the onset time for convection is orders of magnitude larger than the ones predicted by theoretical stability analysis theory. In this study, a new approach for initializing of the model is developed based on available theoretical works. This initialization method is seen to give more accurate predictions of onset time for convection in the simulation models of isotropic and anisotropic brine aquifers.