U.S.-China Cooperative Research: Optimal Control Studies for Steamflooding

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This proposal on "Optimal Control Studies for Steamflooding" between Dr. W. Fred Ramirez of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Professor Qi Yufeng of the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED) of China, is jointly sponsored by NSF and RIPED. The investigators propose to use optimal control theory to determine operating strategies that maximize the economic attractiveness of the steamflooding enhanced oil recovery process. Because the computation of optimal injection strategies is a stringent test of the usability of the mechanistic model which describes the physical process, the evaluation of optimization results with optimal control theory helps develop adequate predictive mathematical models for new enhanced oil recovery techniques. For the steamflooding process, the investigators will consider the optimal use of foam drives. They also will investigate for the first time the effect of reservoir heterogeneties and fractures on optimal injection strategies. To the best of their knowledge, the principal investigators are the only ones currently applying optimal control theory to oil recovery problems. By combining superior computational facilities in the US with the Chinese' superior mathematical model, the investigators hope to advance a solution of this new optimal control problem.