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

科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的W.Fred Ramirez博士和中国石油勘探开发研究院的齐玉峰教授就“蒸汽驱最优控制研究”提出的建议，是由美国国家科学基金会和中国石油勘探开发研究院联合发起的。研究人员建议使用最优控制理论来确定操作策略，以最大限度地提高蒸汽驱提高采油过程的经济吸引力。由于最优注入策略的计算是对描述物理过程的机理模型的可用性的严格检验，因此用最优控制理论对优化结果进行评估有助于为新的提高采收率技术开发出足够的预测数学模型。对于蒸汽驱过程，调查人员将考虑泡沫驱动器的最佳使用。他们还将首次调查储层非均质性和裂缝对最佳注入策略的影响。据他们所知，首席调查人员是目前唯一将最优控制理论应用于采油问题的人。通过将美国优越的计算设施与中国优越的数学模型相结合，研究人员希望推进这一新的最优控制问题的解决方案。

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.