AQUIFER MODELLING

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Aquifer Modelling Facilities

Grid Cell Aquifers

Numerical Aquifers
Analytical Aquifers:

Fetkovich
Carter-Tracy

Flux Aquifers

Figure 108: Aquifer definition

• Aquifers can be modelled as numerical, analytical, grid or flux aquifers.

• Grid and numerical aquifers are specified in the GRID section
• Any grid or numerical aquifer NNCs are specified in the GRID section
• Analytical and flux aquifers are specified in the SOLUTION section
• Analytical aquifer NNCs are also specified in the SOLUTION section.
• Different aquifer types may be used in a model but Carter-Tracy and Fetkovich aquifers
cannot be used in the same model.
• The number of aquifers and the maximum number of cells to which they are connected is
specified in AQUDIMS in the RUNSPEC section.

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Aquifer Modelling Facilities

There are several ways to specify aquifers in ECLIPSE:
• As a grid cell aquifer. To do this: -
• Choose cells beneath the OWC to function as an aquifer
• Multiply their pore volume as necessary using MULTPV.
• Input any extra connections to the oil and/or gas zone with explicit NNCs using
the NNC keyword.
• As a numerical aquifer. To do this: -
• Nominate a number of grid cells, using the keyword AQUNUM, to function as an

aquifer

• Input the NNCs to the reservoir using AQUCON.

• As an analytical aquifer. To do this: -
• Create an aquifer using keywords ACUCT (Carter-Tracy aquifer) or AQUFET or

AQUFETP (Fetkovich aquifer)

• Join them to the reservoir using the AQUANCON keyword.

• As a flux aquifer. To do this: -
• Create an aquifer of constant flux per unit area using the AQUFLUX keyword
• Join it to the reservoir grid by NNCs defined in the AQUANCON keyword.
NOTE that aquifers connected to cells above the OWC will flow into the oil zone. In
numerical aquifers this takes place because the interblock mobility is taken from the
upstream (aquifer) cell, not the downstream cell in which the water relative
permeability may be zero. Analytical aquifer flow is independent of relative
permeability.

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Grid Cell Aquifers

I K=1

J
Oil zone

Inactive cells

Grid aquifer
cells

BOX
--I1 I2 J1 J2 K1 K2
1 1 2 8 1 1 /
EQUALS
’MULTPV’ 10000 /
/
ENDBOX
Figure 109: Grid cell aquifer definition

• Cells in the water leg of the simulation grid are used as an aquifer
• Grid cell aquifers are defined in the GRID and/or EDIT sections.
• Pore volume multipliers may be applied and their properties altered in the GRID

and/or EDIT sections.

• Cell pressure can be reported during the run.
• The aquifer will behave like a finite aquifer by default.

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Grid Cell Aquifers

Aquifers can be incorporated directly into the simulation grid in a number of ways but
the method has a number of limitations.
The simulation grid can be extended artificially below the OWC. This is a valid
approach when modelling aquifers that are small compared to the oil zone. This has the
flexibility that goes with the usage of the entire suite of GRID section keywords to
modify the aquifer properties to match the simulation to the measured aquifer
characteristics. The major disadvantage is that the phase pressures, saturations and
solution ratios are solved in the extra aquifer cells as for any other cell, which may
dramatically increase the run time if the aquifer contains many cells.
In principle aquifers much larger than the oil zone may be defined by multiplying the
pore volumes of the water zone cells. The disadvantages of this approach are
• Throughput-related convergence problems are likely to occur if an aquifer cell pore
volume is more than three orders of magnitude greater than the pore volume of any
of its neighbours.
• A great deal of time and effort has to be spent in designing a grid to represent the
aquifer.

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Numerical Aquifers

I
K=1
J

Oil zone

Inactive cells

Numerical
aquifer cells

NNCs to Oil Zone

GRID
AQUNUM
--1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
--Aquifer I J K Area Length φ K Depth Initial PVT SAT
--Id pressure table table
1 8 9 1 1E2 1E2 1 /
1 9 9 1 1E4 1E3 1 /
1 10 9 1 1E6 1E4 1 /
/
AQUCON
--1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
--Aquifer I1 I2 J1 J2 K1 K2 Face Trans Trans Connection
--Id mult option option
1 1 1 2 8 1 1 ’I-’ /
/

Figure 110: Numerical aquifer definition

• Several redundant cells or cells below the OWC are nominated as aquifer cells
• Numerical aquifers are defined in the GRID section.
• The cell properties are modified by the AQUNUM keyword
• Cells are attached to the oil zone by NNCs defined in the AQUCON keyword
• The number of numerical aquifers and NNC is defined in AQUDIMS in RUNSPEC

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Numerical Aquifers
The user is free to select a number of cells to function as an aquifer. In Figure 110 cells
(8-10, 9, 1) have been nominated. They are joined to one another and the reservoir in
the order of entry in the AQUNUM keyword and form a single aquifer. The order of
connections is
(10, 9, 1) flows into (9, 9, 1)
(9, 9, 1) flows into (8, 9, 1)
(8, 9, 1) flows into the reservoir.
The AQUNUM keyword automatically sets zero transmissibility multipliers between the
chosen aquifer cells and their neighbours in the grid to prevent unwanted flows into
adjacent portions of the grid. Note that aquifer cells cannot be deactivated by keywords
including ACTNUM and MINPV.
The cell properties including dimensions, depth, porosity, permeability and regions
definitions are unaltered by default. Despite the fact that these and other quantities are
set using AQUNUM, they must still be defined elsewhere with the standard GRID and
REGIONS section keywords.

The choice of cell dimensions is significant. In Figure 110, cell pore volumes increase
progressively from the oil zone to cell (10, 8, 1) by a factor no greater than 103 between
connected cells. This is intended to minimise throughput-related convergence problems.
It is often recommended to place an extra row of cells to act as a buffer between the
aquifer itself and the oil zone for the same reason. This is unnecessary if the aquifer has
been designed to minimise throughput-related convergence problems from the outset.
The initial aquifer pressure is usually defaulted to ensure it is in hydrostatic equilibrium
with the rest of the simulation grid after initialisation. Instability may nevertheless arise.
Consider Figure 111. The OWC is at a depth, which does not coincide with a cell centre
depth. The attached aquifer is joined to the entire lateral faces of several cells. There is a
difference between the OWC depth and the aquifer depth, i.e. a hydrostatic pressure
difference between the aquifer and oil zone. Water will flow into the reservoir from the
aquifer in the absence of injection and production and the reservoir pressure will drop
until equilibrium is reached. Although this is normally a very minor effect since the
height difference is small, users are strongly recommended to design reservoir grids to
avoid this. The effect may become very significant if:
• A large number of aquifer cells are connected to the oil zone

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• The grid cells are large

• The initial aquifer pressure is not defaulted and is significantly different from the
pressure at the OWC.

Hydrostatic pressure
difference (ρ w-ρ o)gh

OWC

Figure 111: Model instability from poor aquifer design

The effect is not restricted to numerical aquifers.

The oil zone-aquifer NNCs are defined using AQUCON. Non-neighbour connections must
be enabled and the RUNSPEC NONNC keyword should not be used. The transmissibility
between cell (8, 8, 1) and the rest of the reservoir is defined according to the rules
outlined in an earlier section on Cartesian grid transmissibility and is defined as:
1 1 1
= +
T Taq Tgrid
EQ. 57

where
2kaqAaq
Taq =
laq

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EQ. 58

Where kaq, Aaq and laq are the permeability, cross-sectional area and length, respectively,
of cell (8, 8, 1) and Tgrid is calculated as usual. Transmissibility multipliers may be
applied to these connections in the 9th item of AQUCON. Item 8 of AQUCON specifies which
face of cell (8, 8, 1) is joined to the aquifer. The options are I+, I-, J+, J-, K+ and K-
which represent the direction of increasing and decreasing I, J, and K index,
respectively. In Figure 110 the I- face of any cell is at the left and I+ face is at the right.
The connection option in item 11 determines whether aquifers are permitted to connect
to cell faces that are already joined to other active cells. The default is ‘NO’. The
alternative is used in hydrogeological modelling to allow aquifers to be joined to the
interiors of simulation grids in simulations of groundwater propagation within fractures
of insignificant size compared to the grid cells.

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Fetkovich Aquifers

The aquifer inflow is:

Q wi = J w α i (P a − P i + ρ g ( h i − h a )
From material balance the aquifer
pressure response is
W a = C t V w 0 (P a 0 − P a )
Integrating these gives
(
 1 − exp − J∆ t )
Qai = αiJ (Pa − Pi + ρg (hi − ha )) C tV w 0
 − J∆ t 
 C tV w 0 

Define Fetkovich Aquifers with

RUNSPEC
AQUDIMS
SOLUTION
AQUFET
--or
AQUFETP
AQUANCON

Figure 112: Fetkovich aquifer definition

• Fetkovich aquifers are defined in the SOLUTION section.

• The aquifer properties are defined by the AQFET or AQUFETP keywords

• Fetkovich aquifers are attached to the oil zone by NNCs defined in the AQUANCON

keyword

• The total number of analytical aquifers and aquifer NNCs is defined in AQUDIMS in
RUNSPEC

• Fetkovich and Carter-Tracy aquifers cannot be used in the same run

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Fetkovich Aquifers
Fetkovich aquifers are based on a pseudo-steady state productivity index and material
balance between aquifer pressure and cumulative influx. The flow is modelled by the
equations in Figure 112 where
the subscripts a and i denote the aquifer and grid cell i, respectively.
Qai is the inflow rate from aquifer to cell i
Jw is the aquifer productivity index;
αi is the area fraction for cell i;
Pa is the aquifer pressure at time t
Pi is the cell pressure at time t
ρ is the aquifer water density
hi and ha the cell depth and aquifer datum depth, respectively
Wai is the cumulative influx from aquifer to cell i.
Ct is the total aquifer compressibility
Vw0 is the initial aquifer volume
Pa0 is the initial aquifer pressure
The aquifer flow in Figure 112 is very similar to the familiar well inflow performance
equation. The relationship of aquifer to reservoir is very similar to the relationship of
reservoir to well. Solution of the radial diffusivity equation in which the well is treated
like a reservoir whilst the reservoir is treated like an aquifer provides results analogous
to the familiar results obtained for wells. The consequence is that, given the same
boundary conditions, the aquifer PI is virtually identical in form to a well PI. Fetkovich
aquifers can effectively represent a wide range of aquifer types from the steady state
infinite aquifer which provides constant pressure support to the “pot” aquifer, which is
small compared to the reservoir and whose behaviour is determined by the reservoir
influx. If the aquifer has a large time constant, it responds slowly to variations in
reservoir pressure and the behaviour approaches that of a steady state aquifer. If the PI
is large so that the time constant is small, the behaviour approaches that of a “pot”
aquifer which is close to pressure equilibrium with the reservoir at all times. The topic
is also discussed in the ECLIPSE 100 TECHNICAL APPENDICES.
Fetkovich aquifers can be specified using in two ways
AQUFET is used to specify a single aquifer connected to one reservoir face:
AQUFET
--1 2 3 4 5 6
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--Datum Initial Initial rock+ PI PVTW

--depth pressure volume water table
-- @ datum compressibility No.

--7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
--I1 I2 J1 J2 K1 K2 Face Initial
-- Salt concn

AQUFETP and AQUANCON are used to specify multiple Fetkovich aquifers and/or aquifers

connected to more than one reservoir face.

AQUFETP
--1 2 3 4 5 6
--Id Datum Initial Initial rock+ PI
-- depth pressure volume water
-- @ datum compressibility

--7 8
--PVTW Initial
--table No. Salt concn

AQUANCON
--1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
--Id I1 I2 J1 J2 K1 K2 Face Influx
-- coefficient

--10 11
--Influx Connection
--coefficient option
--multiplier

AQUFETP is followed by up to NANAQU records of analytical aquifer data, where NANAQU

is defined in AQUDIMS in the RUNSPEC section. Refer to the section titled Numerical
Aquifers for a discussion on the individual items in each record.
AQUANCON specifies the connection data for the aquifer(s). The items that are common to

the AQUCON keyword are discussed in the section on Numerical Aquifers. The aquifer
influx coefficient determines the total communication between the aquifer and cells to

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which it is joined. The default for each cell is its face area. The influx coefficient
multiplier may be applied to the influx coefficient of each aquifer-cell connection.

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Carter-Tracy Aquifers

The main parameters governing

Carter-Tracy aquifer behaviour are
the time constant Tc , which is t/tD ,
and the aquifer influx constant β .

µwφCtr 02
Tc =
c1ka
β = c 2hθφCtr 02
The pressure drop at the aquifer
boundary is
To define Carter-Tracy aquifers use Qa Influence
RUNSPEC Pa 0 − P = PD (tD ) Function
AQUDIMS β
SOLUTION and the average flow rate to cell i
AQUCT from time t to t+∆ t is
AQUTAB
Qai = αi{a − b[Pi (t + ∆t ) − Pi (t )]}
AQUANCON

Figure 113: Carter-Tracy aquifer definition

• Carter-Tracy aquifers are defined in the SOLUTION section.

• The aquifer properties are defined by the AQCT keyword
• The pressure response is defined by an influence function, which may be entered
with the AQUTAB keyword.

• Carter-Tracy aquifers are attached to the oil zone by NNCs defined in the AQUANCON
keyword

• The total number of analytical aquifers and aquifer NNCs is defined in AQUDIMS in
RUNSPEC

• Fetkovich and Carter-Tracy aquifers cannot be used in the same run

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Carter-Tracy Aquifers
Carter-Tracy aquifers use tables of dimensionless time td versus dimensionless pressure
Pd(td)to determine the amount of influx. The model approximates a fully transient
model. Limiting cases of the Carter-Tracy aquifer model can represent steady state or
“pot” aquifers. It has the advantage that intermediate behaviour can also be simulated,
i.e. an aquifer which behaves as a steady state aquifer at first but gradually approaches
the behaviour of a “pot” aquifer. The flow is modelled by the equations in Figure 113,
where
ka is the aquifer permeability
φ is the aquifer porosity
µw is aquifer water viscosity
Ct is the total aquifer compressibility
r0 is the aquifer inner radius (or reservoir outer radius)
c1, c2 are constants
h is aquifer thickness
θ is the angle subtended by the aquifer boundary to the centre of the reservoir (the
influence angle)
Qa is aquifer flow rate
Pa0 is the initial aquifer pressure
P is the average water pressure at the aquifer/reservoir boundary
αi is the area fraction
tD and PD are dimensionless time and pressure, respectively
a, b are functions of time, β, Tc, dimensionless pressure.
The topic is discussed in more detail in the ECLIPSE 100 TECHNICAL APPENDICES.
Carter-Tracy aquifers are specified using AQUCT, AQUTAB and AQUANCON.
AQUCT
--1 2 3 4 5 6 7
--Id Datum Initial K φ rock+ External
-- depth pressure water radius
-- @ datum comp.

--8 9 10 11 12
--Thickness Influence PVTW Influence Initial
-- angle table No. fn table No. salt concn

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The radius is the external radius of the reservoir, or the internal radius of the aquifer.
The influence angle is the angle subtended by the aquifer at the aquifer-reservoir
boundary. Item 11 is a pointer (default value 1) to an influence function defined in
AQUTAB. AQUTAB consists of columns of dimensionless time and dimensionless pressure.

Table number 1 is the default and cannot be altered by the user. It represents a constant
rate terminal aquifer as given by van Everdingen and Hurst.

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Flux Aquifers

A constant flux aquifer has

water flow

Q ai = F a A im i
To define a flux aquifer use

RUNSPEC
AQUDIMS

SOLUTION
AQUFLUX
AQUANCON

SCHEDULE
AQUFLUX

Figure 114: Flux aquifer definition

• Flux aquifers are defined in the SOLUTION section.

• The aquifer has no properties as such
• The flow rate is specified directly by the user. It may be negative, representing flux
out of the reservoir.

• As regards the RUNSPEC section, flux aquifers are treated the same as analytical

aquifers.

• Flux aquifers are defined using AQUFLUX

• Connections to the reservoir are created using AQUANCON.
• Flux aquifers cannot be used with the AQUFET keyword.

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Flux Aquifers
The water flow Qai into grid cell i from a flux aquifer is as shown in Figure 114 where
Fa is the flux
Ai the area of the connecting cell block, from the cell geometry
mi is an aquifer influx multiplier.
The AQUFLUX keyword contains up to NANAQU records of data, each consisting of an
aquifer identification number and the flux. The flux can be modified during the
simulation by re-entering AQUFLUX in the SCHEDULE section.

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Output Control

Summary Quantities AAQR, FAQR, FAQT, AAQT, AAQP

Print file Data RPTGRID, RPTSCHED, RPTSOL

Figure 115: Output control

• Summary quantities are requested in the normal manner

• RPTGRID can output numerical aquifer definitions and NNCs.

• RPTSCHED can output Fetkovich or Carter-Tracy aquifer status

• RPTSOL can output analytic aquifer data and individual connection data

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Output Control
• The AAQP aquifer pressure summary quantity applies only to Fetkovich aquifers
• Other SUMMARY quantities report instantaneous and cumulative aquifer influxes.
• The AQUNUM and AQUCON mnemonics in RPTGRID output numerical aquifer

definitions and NNCs, respectively, in tabular form to the PRT file

• The AQUCT or AQUFET or AQUFETP mnemonics in RPTSCHED output status reports on

Fetkovich or Carter-Tracy aquifers in tabular form to the PRT file.

• The AQUFET or AQUFETP or AQUCT or AQUANCON mnemonics of RPTSOL output

analytic aquifer data to the PRT file in tabular form. If any of these is set to 2 (e.g.
‘AQUFET=2’) then additional data on the aquifer-grid cell connections is written to

the PRT file.

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