The physics your reservoir simulator cannot model

Insight solves the full Navier-Stokes equations in the annulus between the sand screen and the formation wall. This is the space where fluids from the reservoir mix, separate under gravity, and flow laterally towards inflow control devices. Standard reservoir simulators treat this space as a single node, Insight resolves the detailed 3D flow field.

• -Full 3D computational fluid dynamics in the annular gap
• -Gravity, friction, and inertial forces resolved simultaneously
• -Multi-phase flow with oil, water, and gas interactions
• -Captures recirculation zones and stagnation regions between devices

In horizontal and deviated wells, gravity separates oil, water, and gas in the annulus. Water tends to the low side, gas to the high side, and oil distributes between them. This segregation determines which fluid phase reaches each inflow control device, and therefore how the device performs. Insight models this segregation explicitly, accounting for well inclination, flow rate, fluid densities, and completion geometry.

• -Gravity-driven oil-water-gas stratification in the annulus
• -Sensitive to well inclination, even small deviations matter
• -Accounts for fluid properties: density, viscosity, surface tension
• -Shows how segregation pattern changes along the wellbore length

Inflow control devices do not operate in isolation. The flow restriction created by one device changes the pressure field in the annulus, which affects the flow arriving at neighbouring devices. Autonomous devices, AICDs and AICVs, respond to the fluid phase they see, which is itself determined by the segregation pattern shaped by upstream devices. Insight captures this coupled behaviour.

• -Device-to-device coupling through the annulus pressure field
• -Autonomous valve response depends on local fluid composition
• -Upstream devices influence downstream segregation patterns
• -Critical for predicting real-world AICD/AICV field performance

Running full CFD on an entire wellbore with hundreds of completion joints would take days of computation. Insight solves this with a rigorous upscaling method: detailed CFD simulations are run at the single-joint level, then the results are systematically upscaled to represent the full wellbore in a reservoir simulator. The upscaled model preserves the physics of annulus segregation and valve interaction while running 3,000,000 times faster than equivalent commercial CFD.

• -Single-joint CFD captures local flow physics at high resolution
• -Systematic upscaling preserves annulus segregation effects
• -Generates connection factors and valve tables for reservoir simulators
• -3,000,000x computational speedup vs commercial CFD (Ansys Fluent)

The legacy approach to completion simulation combines steady-state pipe-network wellbore solvers with mixed-flow assumptions at every junction. The annulus is reduced to a one-dimensional pipe and phases are assumed to mix instantly, which collapses the 3D segregated phase field into a bulk average. Every AICD response curve and AICV shut-off threshold is evaluated on the wrong inlet fluid. Studies built on mixed-flow simulation routinely predict water and gas control that the physical completion cannot deliver. Insight replaces the mixing assumption with CFD at the single-joint scale, validated against Ansys Fluent, and preserves that physics all the way through to the reservoir simulator export.

• -Resolves 3D velocity and phase fields in the annulus, not a 1D mixed pipe
• -No complete-mixing assumption at junctions
• -Phase-dependent device response evaluated on real segregated inlet
• -Validated against full commercial CFD, not against other approximations