Multiphase flow prediction with deep neural networks
This work addresses the need for computationally efficient simulations in fields like carbon storage, offering a practical tool for history matching and uncertainty quantification, though it is incremental as it applies existing deep learning methods to a specific domain.
This paper tackles the problem of predicting multiphase flow in heterogeneous domains by proposing a deep neural network approach that learns from small datasets and achieves high computational efficiency, demonstrating accurate CO2 saturation predictions with a web-based tool for online calculations.
This paper proposes a deep neural network approach for predicting multiphase flow in heterogeneous domains with high computational efficiency. The deep neural network model is able to handle permeability heterogeneity in high dimensional systems, and can learn the interplay of viscous, gravity, and capillary forces from small data sets. Using the example of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage, we demonstrate that the model can generate highly accurate predictions of a CO2 saturation distribution given a permeability field, injection duration, injection rate, and injection location. The trained neural network model has an excellent ability to interpolate and to a limited extent, the ability to extrapolate beyond the training data ranges. To improve the prediction accuracy when the neural network model needs to extrapolate, we propose a transfer learning (fine-tuning) procedure that can quickly teach the neural network model new information without going through massive data collection and retraining. Based on this trained neural network model, a web-based tool is provided that allows users to perform CO2-water multiphase flow calculations online. With the tools provided in this paper, the deep neural network approach can provide a computationally efficient substitute for repetitive forward multiphase flow simulations, which can be adopted to the context of history matching and uncertainty quantification.