Sensitivity study of the effect of parameters from an in-situ combustion simulator

A study was made of the sensitivity of results from an in situ combustion simulator to key parameter variations. The model was based on the finite difference method of solution and accounted for the kinetics of the combustion process. The parameters were block size, dimensionality of the model, number of reactions, activation energy, reaction constant, and injection rate. Approximately 50 dry combustion simulation runs were made using the model in one-, 2-, and 3-dimensional mode. The chemical properties for a heavy oil were used. In general, runs were conducted for 6000 days. The output results were cumulative oil production, oxygen consumption, peak temperature, injection bottom-hole pressure, water-oil ratio, gas-oil ratio, heat release from reactions, fuel consumptions, and saturation distribution. It was found that the results were most sensitive to the flow convection parameters such as block size, and dimensionality. Kinetic parameters effects were not as significant as previously thought.