Numerical Simulation of Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow in Low Permeability Tight Reservoirs Based on Weighted Least Squares Meshless Method

In response to the complex characteristics of actual low-permeability tight reservoirs,this study develops a meshless-based numerical simulation method for oil-water two-phase flow in these reservoirs,considering complex boundary shapes.Utilizing radial basis function point interpolation,the method approximates shape functions for unknown functions within the nodal influence domain.The shape functions constructed by the aforementioned meshless interpolation method haveδ-function properties,which facilitate the handling of essential aspects like the controlled bottom-hole flow pressure in horizontal wells.Moreover,the meshless method offers greater flexibility and freedom compared to grid cell discretization,making it simpler to discretize complex geometries.A variational principle for the flow control equation group is introduced using a weighted least squares meshless method,and the pressure distribution is solved implicitly.Example results demonstrate that the computational outcomes of the meshless point cloud model,which has a relatively small degree of freedom,are in close agreement with those of the Discrete Fracture Model(DFM)employing refined grid partitioning,with pressure calculation accuracy exceeding 98.2%.Compared to high-resolution grid-based computational methods,the meshless method can achieve a better balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.Additionally,the impact of fracture half-length on the productivity of horizontal wells is discussed.The results indicate that increasing the fracture half-length is an effective strategy for enhancing production from the perspective of cumulative oil production.

Analysis on flutter performance of flexible photovoltaic support based on full-order method

Taking a three-cable flexible photovoltaic(PV)support structure as the research subject,a finite element model was established.Utilizing a full-order flutter analysis method,the flutter critical wind speed and flutter frequency of the flexible PV support structure at a tilt angle of 0°were calculated.The results showed good agreement with wind tunnel test data.Further analysis examined the pretension effects in the load-bearing and stabilizing cables on the natural frequency and flutter critical wind speed of the flexible PV support structure.The research findings indicate increasing the pretension in the load-bearing cables significantly raises the natural frequencies of the first four modes.Specifically,as the pretension in the load-bearing cables increases from 22 to 102 kN,the flutter critical wind speed rises from 17.1 to 21.6 m/s.By contrast,the pretension in the stabilizing cable has a smaller effect on the natural frequency and flutter critical wind speed of the flexible PV support structure.When the pretension in the stabilizing cable increased from 22 to 102 kN,the flutter critical wind speed increased from 17.1 to 17.7 m/s.For wind-resistant design of flexible PV support structures,it is recommended to prioritize increasing the pretension in the load-bearing cables to enhance the structural flutter performance.

Partition method for impact dynamics of flexible multibody systems based on contact constraint

The impact dynamics of a flexible multibody system is investigated. By using a partition method, the system is divided into two parts, the local impact region and the region away from the impact. The two parts are connected by specific boundary conditions, and the system after partition is equivalent to the original system. According to the rigid-flexible coupling dynamic theory of multibody system, system＇s rigid-flexible coupling dynamic equations without impact are derived. A local impulse method for establishing the initial impact conditions is proposed. It satisfies the compatibility con- ditions for contact constraints and the actual physical situation of the impact process of flexible bodies. Based on the contact constraint method, system＇s impact dynamic equa- tions are derived in a differential-algebraic form. The contact/separation criterion and the algorithm are given. An impact dynamic simulation is given. The results show that system＇s dynamic behaviors including the energy, the deformations, the displacements, and the impact force during the impact process change dramatically. The impact makes great effects on the global dynamics of the system during and after impact.

A New Flexible Multibody Dynamics Analysis Methodology of Deployable Structures with Scissor-Like Elements

There are vast constraint equations in conventional dynamics analysis of deployable structures,which lead to differential-algebraic equations(DAEs)solved hard.To reduce the difficulty of solving and the amount of equations,a new flexible multibody dynamics analysis methodology of deployable structures with scissor-like elements(SLEs)is presented.Firstly,a precise model of a flexible bar of SLE is established by the higher order shear deformable beam element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation(ANCF),and the master/slave freedom method is used to obtain the dynamics equations of SLEs without constraint equations.Secondly,according to features of deployable structures,the specification matrix method(SMM)is proposed to eliminate the constraint equations among SLEs in the frame of ANCF.With this method,the inner and the boundary nodal coordinates of element characteristic matrices can be separated simply and efficiently,especially on condition that there are vast nodal coordinates.So the element characteristic matrices can be added end to end circularly.Thus,the dynamic model of deployable structure reduces dimension and can be assembled without any constraint equation.Next,a new iteration procedure for the generalized-a algorithm is presented to solve the ordinary differential equations(ODEs)of deployable structure.Finally,the proposed methodology is used to analyze the flexible multi-body dynamics of a planar linear array deployable structure based on three scissor-like elements.The simulation results show that flexibility has a significant influence on the deployment motion of the deployable structure.The proposed methodology indeed reduce the difficulty of solving and the amount of equations by eliminating redundant degrees of freedom and the constraint equations in scissor-like elements and among scissor-like elements.

Analytical method for the attitude stability of partially liquid filled spacecraft with flexible appendage

In this paper, the attitude stability of liquid-filled spacecraft with flexible appendage is investigated. The motion of liquid sloshing is modeled as the spherical pendulum, and the flexible appendage is approached by a linear shearing beam. Nonlinear dynamic equations of the coupled system are derived from the Hamiltonian. The stability of the coupled system was analyzed by using the energy-Casimir method, and the nonlinear stability theorem of the coupled spacecraft system was also obtained. Through numerical computation, the correctness of the proposed theorem is verified and the boundary curves of the stable region are presented. The increase of the angular velocity and flexible attachment length will weaken the attitude stability, and the change of the filled ratio of liquid fuel tank has a different influence on the stability of the coupled spacecraft, depending on the different conditions. The attitude stability analysis of the coupled spacecraft system in this context is useful for selecting appropriate parameters in the complex spacecraft design.

Extremum response surface method of reliability analysis on two-link flexible robot manipulator

In order to present a new method for analyzing the reliability of a two-link flexible robot manipulator,Lagrange dynamics differential equations of the two-link flexible robot manipulator were established by using the integrated modal method and the multi-body system dynamics method.By using the Monte Carlo method,the random sample values of the dynamic parameters were obtained and Lagrange dynamics differential equations were solved for each random sample value which revealed their displacement,speed and acceleration.On this basis,dynamic stresses and deformations were obtained.By taking the maximum values of the stresses and the deformations as output responses and the random sample values of dynamic parameters as input quantities,extremum response surface functions were established.A number of random samples were then obtained by using the Monte Carlo method and then the reliability was analyzed by using the extremum response surface method.The results show that the extremum response surface method is an efficient and fast reliability analysis method with high-accuracy for the two-link flexible robot manipulator.

Application of Two-dimensional Viscous CE/SE Method in Calculation of Two-phase Detonation

The method of two-dimensional viscous space-time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) can be used to calculate the gas-liquid two-phase interior flow field in pulse detonation engine (PDE). In this paper, the evolution of the detonation wave and the distribution of its physical parameters were analyzed. The numerical results show that the change of axial velocity of gas is the same as that of detonation pressure. The larger the liquid droplet radius is, the longer the time to get stable detonation wave is. The calculated results coincide with the experimented results better.

A control volume based finite element method for simulating incompressible two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media and its application to reservoir engineering

Applying the standard Galerkin finite element method for solving flow problems in porous media encounters some difficulties such as numerical oscillation at the shock front and discontinuity of the velocity field on element faces.Discontinuity of velocity field leads this method not to conserve mass locally.Moreover,the accuracy and stability of a solution is highly affected by a non-conservative method.In this paper,a three dimensional control volume finite element method is developed for twophase fluid flow simulation which overcomes the deficiency of the standard finite element method,and attains high-orders of accuracy at a reasonable computational cost.Moreover,this method is capable of handling heterogeneity in a very rational way.A fully implicit scheme is applied to temporal discretization of the governing equations to achieve an unconditionally stable solution.The accuracy and efficiency of the method are verified by simulating some waterflooding experiments.Some representative examples are presented to illustrate the capability of the method to simulate two-phase fluid flow in heterogeneous porous media.

Reconstruction of electrical capacitance tomography images based on fast linearized alternating direction method of multipliers for two-phase flow system

Electrical capacitance tomography(ECT)has been applied to two-phase flow measurement in recent years.Image reconstruction algorithms play an important role in the successful applications of ECT.To solve the ill-posed and nonlinear inverse problem of ECT image reconstruction,a new ECT image reconstruction method based on fast linearized alternating direction method of multipliers(FLADMM)is proposed in this paper.On the basis of theoretical analysis of compressed sensing(CS),the data acquisition of ECT is regarded as a linear measurement process of permittivity distribution signal of pipe section.A new measurement matrix is designed and L1 regularization method is used to convert ECT inverse problem to a convex relaxation problem which contains prior knowledge.A new fast alternating direction method of multipliers which contained linearized idea is employed to minimize the objective function.Simulation data and experimental results indicate that compared with other methods,the quality and speed of reconstructed images are markedly improved.Also,the dynamic experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can ful fill the real-time requirement of ECT systems in the application.

Arbitrary High-Order Fully-Decoupled Numerical Schemes for Phase-Field Models of Two-Phase Incompressible Flows

Due to the coupling between the hydrodynamic equation and the phase-field equation in two-phase incompressible flows,it is desirable to develop efficient and high-order accurate numerical schemes that can decouple these two equations.One popular and efficient strategy is to add an explicit stabilizing term to the convective velocity in the phase-field equation to decouple them.The resulting schemes are only first-order accurate in time,and it seems extremely difficult to generalize the idea of stabilization to the second-order or higher version.In this paper,we employ the spectral deferred correction method to improve the temporal accuracy,based on the first-order decoupled and energy-stable scheme constructed by the stabilization idea.The novelty lies in how the decoupling and linear implicit properties are maintained to improve the efficiency.Within the framework of the spatially discretized local discontinuous Galerkin method,the resulting numerical schemes are fully decoupled,efficient,and high-order accurate in both time and space.Numerical experiments are performed to validate the high-order accuracy and efficiency of the methods for solving phase-field models of two-phase incompressible flows.

Determination of dynamic capillary effect on two-phase flow in porous media: A perspective from various methods

The relationship between capillary pressure and saturation plays a critical role in the characterization of two-phase flow and transport in aquifers and oil reservoirs. This relationship is usually determined under the static condition, where capillary pressure is the only function of saturation. However,considerable experiments have suggested that the dependence of capillary pressure on desaturation rate is under the dynamic condition. Thus, a more general description of capillary pressure that includes dynamic capillary effect has been approved widely. A comprehensive understanding of the dynamic capillary effect is needed for the investigation of the two-phase flow in porous media by various methods. In general, dynamic capillary effect in porous media can be studied through the laboratory experiment, pore-to macro-scale modeling, and artificial neural network. Here, main principle and research procedures of each method are reviewed in detail. Then, research progress, disadvantages and advantages are discussed, respectively. In addition, upscaling study from pore-to macro-scale are introduced, which explains the difference between laboratory experiment and pore-scale modeling. At last, several future perspectives and recommendations for optimal solution of dynamic capillary effect are presented.

A Novel Method of Fabricating Flexible Transparent Conductive Large Area Graphene Film

We fabricate flexible conductive and transparent graphene films on position-emission-tomography substrates and prepare large area graphene films by graphite oxide sheets with the new technical process. The multi-layer graphene oxide sheets can be chemically reduced by HNO3 and HI to form a highly conductive graphene film on a substrate at lower temperature. The reduced graphene oxide sheets show a high conductivity sheet with resistance of 476Ω/sq and transmittance of 76% at 550nm （6 layers）. The technique used to produce the transparent conductive graphene thin film is facile, inexpensive, and can be tunable for a large area production applied for electronics or touch screens.

Nonlinear constrained optimization using the flexible tolerance method hybridized with different unconstrained methods

This paper proposes the use of the flexible tolerance method(FTM) modified with scaling of variables and hybridized with different unconstrained optimization methods to solve real constrained optimization problems.The benchmark problems used to analyze the performance of the methods were taken from G-Suite functions.The original method(FTM) and other four proposed methods:(i) FTM with scaling of variables(FTMS),(ii) FTMS hybridized with BFGS(FTMS-BFGS),(iii) FTMS hybridized with modified Powell's method(FTMS-Powell)and(iv) FTMS hybridized with PSO(FTMS-PSO), were implemented. The success rates of the methods were 80%,100%, 75%, 95% and 85%, for FTM, FTMS, FTMS-BFGS, FTMS-Powell and FTMS-PSO, respectively. Numerical experiments including real constrained problems indicated that FTMS gave the best performance, followed by FTMSPowell and FTMS-PSO. Despite the inferior performance compared to FTMS and FTMS-Powell, the FTMS-PSO method presented some advantages since good different initial points could be obtained, which allow exploring different routes through the solution space and to escape from local optima. The proposed methods proved to be an effective way of improving the performance of the original FTM.

Reconstructing bubble profiles from gas-liquid two-phase flow data using agglomerative hierarchical clustering method

The knowledge of bubble profiles in gas-liquid two-phase flows is crucial for analyzing the kinetic processes such as heat and mass transfer, and this knowledge is contained in field data obtained by surface-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. To obtain this information, an efficient bubble profile reconstruction method based on an improved agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The reconstruction method is featured by the implementations of a binary space division preprocessing, which aims to reduce the computational complexity, an adaptive linkage criterion, which guarantees the applicability of the AHC algorithm when dealing with datasets involving either non-uniform or distorted grids, and a stepwise execution strategy, which enables the separation of attached bubbles. To illustrate and verify this method, it was applied to dealing with 3 datasets, 2 of them with pre-specified spherical bubbles and the other obtained by a surface-resolved CFD simulation. Application results indicate that the proposed method is effective even when the data include some non-uniform and distortion.

NEW STUDYING OF LATTICE BOLTZMANN METHOD FOR TWO-PHASE DRIVEN IN POROUS MEDIA

By using the interaction of particles, such as the physical principle of the same attract each other and the different repulse each other, a new model of Lattice Boltzmann to simulate the two-phase driven in porous media was discussed. The result shows effectively for the problem of two-phase driven in porous media. Furthermore, the method economizes on computer time, has less fluctuation on boundary surface and takes no average measure.

Reliability-based design optimization for flexible mechanism with particle swarm optimization and advanced extremum response surface method

To improve the computational efficiency of the reliability-based design optimization(RBDO) of flexible mechanism, particle swarm optimization-advanced extremum response surface method(PSO-AERSM) was proposed by integrating particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm and advanced extremum response surface method(AERSM). Firstly, the AERSM was developed and its mathematical model was established based on artificial neural network, and the PSO algorithm was investigated. And then the RBDO model of flexible mechanism was presented based on AERSM and PSO. Finally, regarding cross-sectional area as design variable, the reliability optimization of flexible mechanism was implemented subject to reliability degree and uncertainties based on the proposed approach. The optimization results show that the cross-section sizes obviously reduce by 22.96 mm^2 while keeping reliability degree. Through the comparison of methods, it is demonstrated that the AERSM holds high computational efficiency while keeping computational precision for the RBDO of flexible mechanism, and PSO algorithm minimizes the response of the objective function. The efforts of this work provide a useful sight for the reliability optimization of flexible mechanism, and enrich and develop the reliability theory as well.

Two-phase Method without Any Artificial Variable

A method is provided to achieve an initial basic feasible solution of a linear programming in this paper. This method dose not need introducing any artificial variable, but needs only solving an auxiliary linear programming. Compared with the traditional two-phase method, it has advantages of saving the memories and reducing the computational efforts.

Numerical Solutions of the Classical and Modified Buckley-Leverett Equations Applied to Two-Phase Fluid Flow

Climate change is a reality. The burning of fossil fuels from oil, natural gas and coal is responsible for much of the pollution and the increase in the planet’s average temperature, which has raised discussions on the subject, given the emergencies related to climate. An energy transition to clean and renewable sources is necessary and urgent, but it will not be quick. In this sense, increasing the efficiency of oil extraction from existing sources is crucial, to avoid waste and the drilling of new wells. The purpose of this work was to add diffusive and dispersive terms to the Buckley-Leverett equation in order to incorporate extra phenomena in the temporal evolution between the water-oil and oil-water transitions in the pipeline. For this, the modified Buckley-Leverett equation was discretized via essentially weighted non-oscillatory schemes, coupled with a three-stage Runge-Kutta and a fourth-order centered finite difference methods. Then, computational simulations were performed and the results showed that new features emerge in the transitions, when compared to classical simulations. For instance, the dispersive term inhibits the diffusive term, adding oscillations, which indicates that the absorption of the fluid by the porous medium occurs in a non-homogeneous manner. Therefore, based on research such as this, decisions can be made regarding the replacement of the porous medium or the insertion of new components to delay the replacement.

A node-based smoothed point interpolation method for dynamic analysis of rotating flexible beams

We proposed a mesh-free method, the called node-based smoothed point interpolation method(NS-PIM),for dynamic analysis of rotating beams. A gradient smoothing technique is used, and the requirements on the consistence of the displacement functions are further weakened. In static problems, the beams with three types of boundary conditions are analyzed, and the results are compared with the exact solution, which shows the effectiveness of this method and can provide an upper bound solution for the deflection.This means that the NS-PIM makes the system soften. The NS-PIM is then further extended for solving a rigid-flexible coupled system dynamics problem, considering a rotating flexible cantilever beam. In this case, the rotating flexible cantilever beam considers not only the transverse deformations,but also the longitudinal deformations. The rigid-flexible coupled dynamic equations of the system are derived via employing Lagrange’s equations of the second type. Simulation results of the NS-PIM are compared with those obtained using finite element method(FEM) and assumed mode method. It is found that compared with FEM, the NS-PIM has anti-ill solving ability under the same calculation conditions.

Discrete time transfer matrix method for dynamics of multibody system with flexible beams moving in space

In this paper, by defining new state vectors and developing new transfer matrices of various elements mov- ing in space, the discrete time transfer matrix method of multi-rigid-flexible-body system is expanded to study the dynamics of multibody system with flexible beams moving in space. Formulations and numerical example of a rigid- flexible-body three pendulums system moving in space are given to validate the method. Using the new method to study the dynamics of multi-rigid-flexible-body system mov- ing in space, the global dynamics equations of system are not needed, the orders of involved matrices of the system are very low and the computational speed is high, irrespec- tive of the size of the system. The new method is simple, straightforward, practical, and provides a powerful tool for multi-rigid-flexible-body system dynamics.