Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Development of hybrid low salinity water polymer flooding numerical

reservoir simulator and smart proxy model for chemical enhanced oil
recovery (CEOR)
Eric Thompson Brantson a, c, Binshan Ju a, b, *, Prince Opoku Appau d, Perpetual Hope Akwensi e,
Godwill Agyare Peprah f, Nannan Liu a, Elvis Selase Aphu g, Evans Annan Boah h,
Abraham Aidoo Borsah i
a
School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
b
Key Laboratory of Geological Evaluation and Development Engineering of Unconventional Natural Gas Energy, Beijing, 100083, China
c
Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty Mineral Resources Technology, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana
d
Research Institute of Enhanced Oil Recovery, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China
e
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
f
Petroleum Unit, Ghana Revenue Authority, VAT House, Ringroad Central, Accra, Ghana
g
College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
h
Oil and Gas Engineering Department, All Nations University College, Koforidua, Ghana
i
Technology and Innovation Department, Ghana Water Company Limited, Accra, Ghana

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A MATLAB based finite volume CEOR simulator was developed for modeling the recovery of oil by low salinity
Low and high salinity water polymer flooding water polymer flooding (LSWPF) in a proposed geostatistical method of generating porous media. Firstly, this
Artificial neural network paper coupled ion exchange, wettability and fluid flow transport models to the proposed heterogeneous porous
Chemical enhanced oil recovery
media to investigate LSWPF oil recovery performance. Secondly, for the first time, a new hybrid smart proxy
Smart proxy model
Artificial banding
model of particle swarm optimization artificial neural network (PSO-ANN) recovery factor (RF) correlation was
Particle swarm optimization derived for LSWPF oil recovery performance using the extracted weights and biases. The proposed porous media
as well as stochastic multi-fractal random field and circulant embedding method (CEM) permeability field re­
alizations did not exhibit artificial banding unlike turning bands method (TBM) realizations when compared. A
fast convergence pre-conditioner solution technique of algebraic multigrid (AMG) linear solver combined with an
acceleration method of biconjugate gradients stabilized method (BI-CGSTAB) was used to solve the fully implicit
system of coupled linearized equations. The simulator was validated with PHREEQC geochemical package and a
secondary LSWPF coreflood test with outstanding history match. Numerical 2D examples study in this paper
revealed the synergetic effects of LSWPF and high salinity water polymer flooding (HSWPF) with higher oil RFs
of 39% and 31%, respectively than the standalone LSWF of 23% and normal waterflood of 11% for 50 days of
production. The optimal architecture of the PSO-ANN RF model is 7 inputs, 3 hidden neurons and 1 output. Also,
the PSO-ANN RF model predictions were compared to the LSWPF numerical simulation results with the former
remarkably having reduced computational time in seconds with training and blind testing errors <1% average
absolute percentage error (AAPE) for various permeability field realizations investigated. Finally, the PSO-ANN
RF model will serve as a fast-alternative reservoir management and planning tool to supplement the high-fidelity
LSWPF CEOR simulator developed to minimize computational overheads, risks and uncertainties in oil recovery
performance modeling.

* Corresponding author. School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China.
E-mail address: jubs2936@163.com (B. Ju).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106751
Received 23 March 2019; Received in revised form 25 November 2019; Accepted 27 November 2019
Available online 28 November 2019
0920-4105/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
E.T. Brantson et al.
1. Introduction
Conventional high salinity water flooding (HSWF) is a secondary
recovery mechanism usually used to recover additional oil, improve
microscopic sweep efficiency and maintain reservoir pressure for longer
productive life before economic limit is attained. However, some school
of thought revealed that the quality and composition of water injected is
as important as the quantity that is injected into oil reservoirs (Jadhu­
nandan and Morrow, 1995). The quality of this water injected is called
LSWF/smart waterflood/advanced ion management/designer water­
flood. In literature, there is no consensus about the actual mechanism
(fine migration, double-layer effects (DLE), pH modification,
multi-component ionic exchange (MIE), osmotic pressure, interfacial
reduction (IFT), etc) behind LSWF incremental oil recovery (Al-Shalabi
and Sepehrnoori, 2017), but wettability alteration has been widely
accepted as the main mechanism through experiments, numerical
modeling and simulation approaches (Rivet, 2009; Al-Shalabi and
Sepehrnoori, 2017). The discovery of this attractive LSWF method has
led to a lot of studies being carried out both theoretically and experi­
mentally in relation to the modification of salinity and ionic composition
of the injected water for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
Many of such studies include Korrani et al. (2016) on the mechanistic
modeling of LSWF through coupling of a geochemical package with a
compositional reservoir simulator. The study presented a step by step
algorithm which integrated IPhreeqc with UTCOMP which was used to
history match and interpret LSWF experiment and the field trial per­
formed by BP at the Endicott field. Furthermore, Attar and Muggeridge
(2018) employed numerical simulation approach to study LSWF with
regards to the impact of physical diffusion, an aquifer and geological
heterogeneity on slug size. In fact, their findings revealed that a slug size
of at least 0.6 pore volume (PV) is required in heterogeneous reservoirs,
in the absence of an aquifer for incremental oil recovery. Also, Zeini­
jahromi and Bedrikovetsky (2013) dwelled on the mechanism of EOR by
fines-migration-assisted waterflooding at laboratory scale. The relative
permeability curves generated indicated that the permeability for water
increases at low water saturations and decreases at high saturations. Not
only that, Bedrikovetsky et al. (2015) investigated field case study for
fines-migration-assisted LSWF. The obtained mathematical model from
their study was used for history matching with good agreement between
the field and modeling data. The obtained model was also used to
compare recovery factors for two scenarios of LSWF and normal water
injection.
However, one of the sources of concern for this LSWF EOR technique
is that majority of its evaluation is based on coreflooding experiments,
because most of the tests about this subject are based on spontaneous
imbibition and contact angle. In fact, the ability of chemical and phys­
ical property models to predict LSWF multiphysics complex processes
for full-field scale implementation is still a challenge with slow and
expensive computational run times despite the advancement made in
standard software such as UTCHEM, ECLIPSE and CMG. In the light of
this, the development of specialized numerical reservoirs simulators for
hybrid CEOR methods have been an active area of recent research
(Lashgari et al., 2016). One of such developments is the comprehensive
comparative analysis of CEOR simulators capabilities and benchmark
tests carried out by Goudarzi et al. (2016) to illustrate the potentials of
these CEOR simulators for chemical flooding projects highlighting their
strengths and limitations.
Furthermore, viscous fingering, water conning from aquifers and
preferential fluid channeling (Doorwar and Mohanty, 2011; Ju et al.,
2017; Brantson et al., 2018a) are the major subsurface instabilities that
can impede the efficiency of LSWF EOR method. One of the most effi­
cient methods to solve this problem is the use of polymer flooding
technique (Sheng et al., 2015; Lamas et al., 2016). Currently, the pe­
troleum industry has started showing interest in the possibility of
leveraging the combination of EOR methods together known as Hybrid
EOR effect. One of such combination modeled and simulated in this
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
paper is called LSWPF. The use of LSWF will increase polymer yield
(aqueous viscosity increase), increase sweep efficiency and reduce
chemical cost (Rivet, 2009; Seright et al., 2010). Mohammadi and Jer­
auld (2012) reported in their numerical simulation study about the
combination of polymer flooding with low salinity water to improve
timing and efficiency of oil recovery process. In terms of cost analysis,
there was 5 times reduction in chemical cost per barrel for LSWPF
combination. Similarly, Ayirala et al. (2010) performed
cost-performance analysis of combining LSWPF for an offshore work.
The inference drawn from their study indicated that LSWPF had more
additional oil recovery and cost effective because of smaller polymer
consumption when compared to sea water polymer flooding. Never­
theless, not much published studies in literature have been devoted to
LSWPF simulation with hybrid smart proxy model. Therefore, our study
will show how comprehensive LSWPF CEOR numerical simulation re­
sults can be used to derive a fast-computational tool. The proposed
computational tool will overcome the industrial applications of nu­
merical reservoir simulators that takes long hours to days to complete
simulation runs. It will be of interest to know that developing a hybrid
supervised learning smart proxy model for modeling LSWPF for the first
time will be an advancement in this promising hybrid EOR technique.
Over the years, soft computing applications like artificial neural
network (ANN) technologies have emerged as effective and general­
ization tools for resolving uncertainties and complications in real world
problems. Eberhart and Kennedy (1995) were the first authors to
pioneer PSO as an evolutionary bio-inspired metaheuristic optimization
algorithm. Their zeal for developing this population-based algorithm
stems from the simulation of swarm species (bees), movement and
flocking social behaviors (birds and shoal of fishes) in multidimensional
search space. According to Chiroma et al. (2016), PSO is a global algo­
rithm capable of probing for global optimum result by fast-tracking
convergence but slower in finding global optimum solution, whiles
ANN algorithm has a strong capacity to find the local optimum solution
but limited in its ability to find global optimum solution. Hence, hybrid
algorithms are now being developed to leverage their merits and de­
merits for robust optimization modeling. Conversely, these ANN tools
have the weakness of being black box and not transparent. Artificial
intelligent tools used in many previous studies did not disclose the
models they developed, and the models were regarded as being black
box. This is in the sense that they do not reveal the exact details of the
computational procedures for predicting datasets. Therefore, this paper
seeks to change the black box PSO-ANN algorithm into a transparent
white box to reveal the hidden correlations for RF predictions by
extracting the weights, biases and transfer functions from the optimum
training model. This will be the first time such a supervised learning
practical novel idea (black box to white box) has been carried out for
LSWPF RF performance modeling. This will be a stepping stone towards
debunking the idea that ANN algorithms do not reveal their detailed
calculations that takes place behind the scene. The smart proxy
PSO-ANN RF model developed in this study will help in efficient reser­
voir management decisions and with the capability of less error in
forecasting LSWPF oil recovery performance.
This research work is organized into four sections as follows: Section
1 gives introduction of LSWF, LSWPF and coupled PSO-ANN evolu­
tionary algorithm from the literature. Section 2 describes the methods
for generating the proposed heterogeneous porous media as well as
other types of geostatistical methods implemented. Also, section 2 shows
the mathematical models implemented in developing the LSWPF EOR
numerical reservoir simulator with horizontal configuration of both
injection and production wells. Herein, the development of the PSO-
ANN RF smart proxy model was also described. Section 3 discusses the
obtained key results from the dynamic numerical simulation and the
smart proxy model oil recovery performance predictions. Finally, sec­
tion 4 listed the conclusions drawn from the significant advances made
in this study with regards to the modeling of LSWPF.
E.T. Brantson et al.
2. Methodology of porous media modeling
2.1. Porosity and permeability field modeling
This section describes the porosity and the various permeability
fields modeling techniques developed and implemented in MATLAB
programing environment coupled to the CEOR simulator. Hence, this
study constructs synthetic property distributions by aping actual reser­
voirs and depicting the scale needed for quantifying reservoir simulation
production performance. The newly proposed porous media imple­
mentation procedures used are described as follows, but not aimed at
modeling a specific reservoir:
2.1.1. The proposed porous media method
(1) A grid mesh of A x B matrix for permeability and porosity field is
created in the x and y directions. Also, a grid mesh of a x b matrix
is created and interpolated over A x B matrix for the log normal
permeability and porosity fields.
(2) Dykstra and Parsons (1950) coefficient (VDP) describes the static
variational perturbation in measuring permeability as expressed
in Eq. (1). VDP ¼ 0, denotes homogeneous reservoir, while VDP ¼
1, imply extremely heterogeneous reservoir.
logk log kσ standard deviation of LogðkÞ
VDP ¼ ¼ ; (1)
logk Average of LogðkÞ
where k is the median (50%) permeability and kσ is the permeability at
84.1% of the cumulative sample and σ is the standard deviation.
(3) Due to the relationship between VDP and σ , Eq. (1) can be rear­
ranged in Eq. (2) as:
σ¼ logð1 VDP Þ: (2)
(4) Also, the sample mean ðμÞ for log-normal randomly distributed
field is given by Eq. (3) as:
� bution implemented in MATLAB was quantified by measuring the Hurst
Log kaverage ¼ ðμÞ þ 1 = 2σ2 ; (3)
where kaverage is the average permeability.
(5) The lognormal distribution of permeability is the most common
geostatistical approach used for generating petroleum porous
media. The mathematical formula in Eq. (4) returns an array of
random numbers generated from lognormal distribution with the
estimated sample mean in Eq. (3) and standard deviation in Eq.
(2) as:
K ¼ lognrndðμ; σ ; a; bÞ (4)
(6) The porosity field is generated by obtaining permeability values
based on Carman-Kozeny equation (Carman, 1956). This equa­
tion relating permeability to porosity written in Eq. (5) is used to
obtain the values of the empirical geometrical parameter (c) as:
K8τA2v ð1 ϕÞ2
c¼ ; (5)
ϕ3
where ϕ is the porosity which is a function of permeability, τ is tortu­
osity, Av is the specific surface area, c is the empirical geometrical
parameter.
3
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
(7) The correlation lengths in the x and y directions denote the
maximum distance at which two points display correlation used
in generating the spatial variability of the geological media. The
medium is termed as homogeneous when one autocorrelation
length is used, but heterogeneous if two autocorrelation lengths
are used.
(8) An initialized interpolated porosity field of a x b matrix same as
the permeability field is created. Then, the polynomial roots of
the empirical geometrical parameter are computed with only the
real parts used to populate the porosity field.
(9) To carry out the interpolation for the 2D gridded data in the mesh
grid format, the change in x and y directions was computed for
both A x B matrix (coordinates of the sample points) and a x b
matrix (coordinates of the query points). These changes were
used to create mesh grids for the interpolation of porosity and
permeability fields. The 2D interpolation of log permeability field
returns interpolated values of a function of two variables at
specific query points using cubic interpolation method. The log
permeability values generated in Eq. (4) contains the corre­
sponding function values at each sample point. Therefore, the
permeability field is generated by finding the exponent of the log
permeability field values generated from the cubic interpolation
method.
(10) The 2D interpolation of the porosity field returns interpolated
values of a function of two variables at specific query points using
cubic interpolation method. The initial porosity field in step 8
now contains the corresponding function values at each sample
point. Finally, the porosity field realization is generated for nu­
merical reservoir simulation.
2.1.2. Stochastic 2D multi-fractal random field method
Fractional Brownian motion (fBm) was introduced by Kolmogorov
(1940) and popularized by Mandelbrot and Van Ness (1968). Random
fractals (Mandelbrot, 1977) like fBm exhibit self-similar statistics
(Hewett, 1986) due to an appropriate reliable averaging of independent
properties of an object. It is also a known fact that permeability field
distributions display fractal-like characteristics at field scale due to the
broad range variability of fractals ability. The permeability field distri­
exponent (H) of the distribution for different model sizes, number of
grids, and average permeabilities. A 2D self-affine distributions was
obtained. Then, a 2D version of Voss (1985) algorithm was used to
synthesize fBm statistical algorithm which signify the fractal distribu­
tion of reservoir properties within the reservoir. The detailed mathe­
matical algorithm by Voss (1985) can be found in Iudin and Koposov
(2013). The degree of heterogeneity can be modeled by varying the
fractal dimensions at the microscopic-scale. Generally, smaller fractal
dimension indicates homogeneous pore structure and good reservoir
porosity. Conversely, higher fractal dimension represents more hetero­
geneous pore structure and less reservoir capacity (Al-Zainaldin et al.,
2017).
2.1.3. Circulant embedding method
Circulant embedding method (CEM) provides an efficient way to
sample stationary Gaussian processes precisely at uniformly spaced
sample times. But in the case of sampling at non-uniformly spaced times,
linear interpolation is required with the introduction of weak approxi­
mation error for mean square differentiable processes. The method is
more accurate than the quadrature method due to the fact that its
interpolation is based on samples from the correct distribution. The
spectral decomposition takes special form in terms of the discrete
Fourier transform (DFT) and the computation is done efficiently using
the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Furthermore, covariance matrices are
not generally circulant, but sampling stationary processes at uniformly
spaced times come with symmetric Toeplitz matrices that can be
embedded inside a larger circulant matrices by applying DFT
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Start

Define model geometry

Reservoir Width Reservoir Length

Create 2D-Cell volume mesh structure

Define model physical parameters

Define permeability parameters

Relative perms Correlation length & VDP

Specify model boundary conditions

Dirichlet constant Dirichlet constant

aqueous phase reservoir pressure
injected Define model physical parameters

Define time step parameters

Initial time (t=0) Time step change (∆ t) Final time (t_final)

t + ∆ t = t_final

Pressure accuracy Specify Error Accuracy Aqueous phase accuracy

Create cell variables

Pressure cell Aqueous phase cell
variable variables

Calculate aqueous phase velocity

Looping
Define TVD schemes

Yes t<t_final

No

Calculate pressure Calculate aqueous phase

Calculate parameters gradient
gradient

Sparse matrix Apply boundary conditions Right hand side column vector

Coupling equations

AMG+ BI-CGSTAB

Numerical solutions for pressure, water saturation, salt and polymer concentrations

No Error check for pressure

and aqueous phase

Yes

Visualization of simulation plots

End

Fig. 1. Computer modeling implementation flowchart for LSWPF.

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 2. Hybridization of PSO-ANN models.

2.1.4. Turning bands method

Table 1
TBM is a procedure of sampling aimed at generating spatially
Numerical reservoir simulation input data for multi-ion exchange (HSWF &
correlated permeability fields with its accurateness based on the amount
LSWF).
of lines used. The TBM also uses a random vector and a stationary sto­
Reservoir parameters Numerical values chastic process to define turning bands random field. The TBM is a
Porosity 100% method for approximating realizations of isotropic Gaussian random
Horizontal permeability 9.869 � 10 13 m2 fields (Lord et al., 2014). Whenever insufficient amount of lines is used,
Vertical permeability 9.869 � 10 13 m2
streaking effect (artifact banding) in the simulated map abounds (Emery
Grid block dimensions 40 � 1 x 1
Grid block sizes Δx ¼ 1 m, Δy ¼ 1 m, Δz ¼ 1 m and Lantu�ejoulb, 2006). According Gotway and Rutherford (1994), TBM
Selectivity coefficient 0.4 carry out simulation along unidimensional lines rather than synthesizing
the multidimensional field with computational efficiency over a space
domain and more efficient than lower upper (LU) decomposition algo­
Table 2 rithm. A non-conditional realization can be generated for visual in­
LSWF and HSWF validation parameters. spections. An in-depth information on the implementation of the
mathematical algorithm of TBM for Gaussian random fields in MATLAB
LSWF HSWF
are available in (Matheron, 1973; Mantoglou and Wilson, 1982; Emery
2þ
Na þ
Ca Cl Naþ Ca2þ Cl
and Lantu� ejoulb, 2006; Lord et al., 2014; Brantson et al., 2018b).
Injected brine 0.01135 0.000125 0.01436 11.15 1.25 14.36
(mol/l) 2.2. Mathematical modeling of low salinity polymer flooding
Formation water 1.1135 0.125 1.436 1.115 0.125 1.436
(mol/l)
In this section, a hybrid CEOR simulator was developed to investi­
gate LSWPF oil recovery performance. This development included two-
factorization for an efficient sampling of the stationary processes (Lord phase with four fluid components (oil, water, polymer and salt) and data
et al., 2014). However, CEM implemented in MATLAB was used to structures implemented in MATLAB programming environment to
generate 2D realizations of stationary anisotropic exponential correla­ simulate the displacement of oil by LSWPF. The following underlying
tion and Gaussian covariance function of uniformly spaced grid mesh assumptions were made in formulating the black oil model framework
which is very complicated to implement due to the structure of the for a non-deformable porous media.
resulting covariance matrix. The CEM can also be used to simulate fBm
(Davies and Harte, 1987; Dieker and Mandjes, 2003). The detailed
mathematical algorithm of CEM can be found in Lord et al. (2014).

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

� The porous media, aqueous mixture solution and oleic phase are
incompressible.
� LSWPF only affected the water permeability phase and not the
permeability of the oil phase (no polymer partitioning).

2.2.2. Low salinity flooding model assumptions

� Salt is modeled as a single component in the aqueous phase.

� High and low salinity relative permeability curves were made as a
function of salinity.
� An interpolation technique was employed to interpolate between the
inputs for high and low salinity relative permeability curves.
� Scale deposition was neglected when two incompatible brines mix
(injected and formation brines)
� The effect of divalent or monovalent hardness ions on polymer vis­
cosity slug were neglected.

2.2.3. Multiphase flow and transport equations

With regards to the assumptions made above, the simultaneous flow
of oleic and aqueous mixture phases (water, polymer and salt) in porous
media are described by mass conservation equation for each phase.
Applying macroscopic Darcy law for two immiscible fluids flow in
porous media for each control volume (CV) is written in Eq. (6) as:
kkrα
!
uα¼ rpα ; (6)
μα

where ! u is the velocity vector, krα is the relative permeability of a phase,

k is the absolute permeability tensor which depends on rock properties
(m2), μ is the fluid viscosity (Pa.s), p is the reservoir pressure (Pa), r is
the gradient operator, α is the oil and aqueous mixture phase.
The mobility of the aqueous mixture phase (water, polymer and salt)
ðλw Þ and oil phase ðλo Þ sums up to the total fluid mobility (λT ) which is
defined in Eq. (7) as:
� �
krw ðSw ðx; tÞÞ kro ðSw ðx; tÞÞ
λT ¼ kðxÞ þ ; (7)
μw μo

where Sw ðx; tÞ is the saturation of aqueous mixture phase defined in

space and time. When the mobility ratio is greater than one (upstream
mobility greater than downstream mobility), there exist an unstable
flow displacement and vice versa. The total Darcy velocity (uT ) of both
the oil and aqueous mixture phase (water, polymer and salt) velocity is
given in Eq. (8) as:
uT ¼ λT rp: (8)
Therefore, for an incompressible immiscible fluid flow (aqueous
mixture and oleic phases), the continuity equation is given by Eq. (9) as:
r:uT ¼ 0: (9)
Fig. 3. (a) Validation of the LSWPF simulator evolution ions with PHREEQC
geochemical module for low salinity waterflooding (b) Validation of the LSWPF Substituting Eqs. (7) and (8) into Eq. (9) leads to Eq. (10) as:
simulator evolution ions with PHREEQC for high salinity waterflooding (c) � �
krw ðSw Þ kro ðSw Þ
� �
LSWPF simulator validated with Kozaki (2012) secondary LSWPF core­ r: k þ rp ¼ 0: (10)
μw μo
flood test.
Linearizing Eq. (10) using Taylor series expansion yields Eq. (11) as:
2.2.1. Polymer flooding model assumptions � � � � � � � �
krw ðSwi Þ kro ðSwi Þ ∂krw ðSwi Þ ∂kro ðSwi Þ
r: k þ rp þ r: k þ rpi Sw
μw μo μw ∂Sw μo ∂Sw
� Isothermal conditions and fully mixed aqueous polymer solution � � � �
were considered. ¼ r: k
∂krw ðSwi Þ ∂kro ðSwi Þ
þ rpi Swi ;
� The aqueous phase viscosity is a function of polymer and salt μw ∂Sw μo ∂Sw
concentrations. (11)
� No salt adsorption onto solid rock surface but has an impact on the
aqueous polymer solution viscosity. where Swi is the initial aqueous mixture saturation, Sw is the aqueous
� Gravitational force and capillary pressure were not included. mixture saturation new values, pi is the initial reservoir pressure, p is the
� Darcy law applied to multiphase flow in porous media. global pressure, k is the absolute permeability, kro and krw are relative
permeability of oil and aqueous mixture phase, respectively.
The pressure gradient field in Eq. (11) can be discretized into Eq. (12)

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 4. Permeability maps (a) VDP ¼ 0.1, (λx ¼0.05 m, λy ¼ 0.05 m) (b) VDP ¼ 0.5, (λx ¼0.05 m, λy ¼ 0.05 m) (c) VDP ¼ 0.9, (λx ¼0.05 m, λy ¼ 0.05 m) (d) Porosity field.

as: � �
∂Sw kkrw ðSw Þ
� � � � ϕ þ r: rp ¼ 0: (13)
krw ðSwi Þ kro ðSwi Þ ∂t μw
Diffusion term k þ ;p
μw μo
Again, linearizing Eq. (13) using Taylor series expansion yielded Eq.
� � � �
krw ðSwi Þ kro ðSwi Þ (14) as:
þ Convection term u þ ;p (12)
μw μo � � � �
∂Sw kkrw ðSwi Þ k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
� � � � ϕ þ r: rp þ r: rpi Sw
krw ðSwi Þ kro ðSwi Þ ∂t μw μw ∂Sw
¼ Divergence term k þ ; rpi � �
μw μo k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
¼ r: rpi Swi (14)
μw ∂Sw
2.2.4. Transport equations
The nonlinear water transport flow equation in Eq. (14) can be dis­
The water velocity from Eq. (6) can be estimated to be used in the
cretized into Eq. (15) as:
water transport equation each time the pressure gradient in Eq. (12) is
known. Hence, the equation for water mass balance is given by Eq. (13)
as:

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 5. Permeability maps (a) H ¼ 0.1, (b) H ¼ 0.5, (c) H ¼ 0.7, (d) H ¼ 0.9.

�� � �
kkrw ðSwi Þ Similarly, with the pressure gradient known from Eq. (12), the oil
Transient term ðΔt; Sw Þ þ Diffusion term rp ; Sw
μw mass balance equation is stated in Eq. (16) as:
� � � � � �
k ∂krw ðSwi Þ ∂So kkro ðSw Þ
þ Convection term u
μw ∂Sw
rpi ; Sw ϕ þ r: rp ¼ 0: (16)
�� � � ∂t μo
k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
¼ Divergence term rpi ; Swi Once more, linearizing Eq. (16) using Taylor series expansion pro­
μw ∂Sw
duced Eq. (17) as:
(15)

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 6. Permeability maps of circulant embedding method (a, b) anisotropic exponential correlation (c, d) Gaussian covariance function.

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 7. (a) Permeability maps (a, b) TBM artifact banding of random fields (15 lines), (c, d) TBM random fields (1000 lines).

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 8. Simulation and theoretical variogram model validation for TBM.

Fig. 9. CPU run-times for permeability map methods.

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E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

where Cs is the concentration of salt.

Again, linearizing Eq. (19) using Taylor series expansion formed Eq.
(20) as:
� � � � � �
∂Sw ∂Cs kkrw ðSwi Þ
ϕCs þ ϕSw þ r: Csi rp
∂t Swi ∂t Csi μw
� �
k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
þ r: Csi rpi Sw (20)
μw ∂Sw
� �
k ∂Csi
¼ r: krw ðSwi Þrpi Swi
μw ∂Sw
The nonlinear salt transport flow equation in Eq. (20) is discretized
into Eq. (21) as:
�� � �
kkrw ðSwi Þ
Transient term ðΔt; Sw ; Cs Þ þ Diffusion term Csi rp ; Sw
μw
� � � �
k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
þ Convection term u Csi rpi ; Sw
μw ∂Sw
� � � �
k ∂Csi
¼ Divergence term krw ðSwi Þrpi ; Swi
μw ∂Sw
Fig. 10. Relative permeability curves for low and high salinity waterflooding. (21)
The polymer transport equation in porous media is written in Eq.
� � � � (22) as:
∂So kkro ðSwi Þ k ∂kro ðSwi Þ
ϕ þ r: rp þ r: rpi Sw � � � �
∂t μo μo ∂Sw ∂Sw Cp ∂ ρr ð1 ϕÞCpad kkrw ðSw Þ
� � ϕ þ þ r: Cp rp ¼ 0; (22)
k ∂kro ðSwi Þ ∂t ∂t μw
¼ r: rpi Swi (17)
μo ∂Sw
In a polymer slug flooding EOR operations, there are portions of the
The nonlinear oil transport flow equation in Eq. (17) has the subse­ pore volume that may be inaccessible to the polymer solution as they are
quent discretization terms in Eq. (18) as: unable to enter smaller pores (pore throats and dead-end pore channels)
�� � � due to the fact that polymer molecules are large relative to hydrocarbons
kkro ðSwi Þ
Transient term ðΔt; So Þ þ Diffusion term rp ; Sw and water in the reservoir. Therefore, for inaccessible pore volume in the
μo polymer transport in Eq. (22), the equation is rewritten in Eq. (23) as:
� � � �
k ∂kro ðSwi Þ � � � � �
þ Convection term u rpi ; Sw ∂Sw 1 Sipv Cp ∂ ρr ð1 ϕÞCpad kkrw ðSw Þ
μo ∂Sw ϕ þ þ r: Cp rp ¼ 0;
�� � � ∂t ∂t μw
k ∂kro ðSwi Þ
¼ Divergence term
μo ∂Sw
rpi ; Swi (23)
(18)
where Cp is the concentration of the polymer, ρr is the bulk density of the
During fluid flow simulation, salt by means of Darcy velocity is rock, Cpad is the mass of the polymer adsorbed per unit mass of rock. Sipv
transported in the aqueous mixture phase, therefore the salt mass bal­ is the inaccessible pore volume.
ance equation is written in Eq. (19) as the salinity model: Likewise, linearizing Eq. (22) using Taylor series expansion yields
� � Eq. (24) as:
∂Sw Cs kkrw ðSw Þ
ϕ þ r: Cs rp ¼ 0; (19)
∂t μw

� � � � � � � �
∂Sw ∂Cp ∂Cpad ∂ρr
ϕCp þ ϕSw þ ρr ð1 ϕÞ þ Cpad ð1 ϕÞ þ
∂t ∂t ∂t ∂t
(24)
Swi Cpi
� � � � � �
kkrw ðSwi Þ k ∂krw ðSwi Þ k ∂Cpi
r: Cpi rp þ r: Cpi rpi Sw ¼ r: k ðS Þrpi Swi
μw μw ∂Sw μw ∂Sw rw wi

12
E.T. Brantson et al.
Fig. 11. Numerical solution convergence for standalone AMG and AMG þ BI-CGSTAB.
The nonlinear polymer transport flow equation in Eq. (22) is dis­
cretized into Eq. (25) as:
� �
Transient term Δt; Sw ; Cp þ Transient term Δt; ρr ; Cpad þ
�� � � � �
kkrw ðSwi Þ
Diffusion term Cpi rp ; Sw þ Convection term u
μw
� � � �
k ∂Cpi
Divergence term krw ðSwi Þrpi ; Swi
μw ∂Sw
The auxiliary equation for both the aqueous mixture solution (Sw)
and oleic phase (So) in porous media is given by the closing relation in
Eq. (26) as:
Sw þ So ¼ 1: (26)
Also, all other mathematical formulations implemented which are
relevant to LSWPF in heterogeneous porous media can be found in the
following literatures: polymer model (Pope, 1980; Wegner and Ganzer,
2012; Borazjani et al., 2016), wettability model (Jerauld et al., 2008)
and ion exchange model (Dang, 2015).
2.3. Solution technique for coupled equations
In this study, initial and boundary conditions (No flow boundary
condition at the outer boundary lateral walls) are specified for the grid
cell volumes generated in order to tract the mathematical model
formulated for LSWPF. The ion exchange reactions in each grid block
were solved as a batch cell reaction. A fast convergence pre-conditioner
solution technique of AMG preconditioned BI-CGSTAB linear solver was
used to solve the fully implicit system of linearized equations. This
preconditioner solution technique was implemented as a MATLAB
function to solve the large sparse matrix from the coupling of the
geochemical and fluid flow transport equations. AMG does not take into
consideration geometric information when applied to geometrical
problems provided the underlying matrix has certain properties (Stüben,
2001). However, coarsening is obtained by aggregation of the unknowns
(Napov and Notay, 2012). The detailed mathematical algorithm will not
be repeated here but reference can be made to (Stüben, 1981, 2001;
Napov and Notay, 2012). In this work, Fig. 1 depicts the procedure used
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
to develop the computer model. Let us consider solving N x N system
given the discretization terms in Eqs. ((12), (18), (21) and (25), coupled
� �
k ∂krw ðSwi Þ
Cpi rpi ; Sw ¼
μw ∂Sw (25)
together result into a linear simultaneous equation expressed in Eq. (27)
as:
� � � � � �
Jpm þ Mbcp JSwm p RHSm þ RHSbcp
¼ ; (27)
Jpn JSwn þ MbcSw Sw RHSn þ RHSbcSw
where J is the Jacobian matrix, m represents the continuity equation for
pressure, n denotes aqueous mixture phase equations, Mbc terms repre­
sent boundary conditions matrix terms for pressure and aqueous mixture
phase equations, p is the primary unknown pressure, Sw is the primary
unknown aqueous mixture phase solution, RHS denotes right hand side
of the coupled equations, RHSbc term shows right hand side boundary
conditions matrix terms for pressure and aqueous mixture phase
equations.
2.4. Hybridized PSO-ANN algorithm design
In this study, ANN modeling requires tuning and configuration of
many network parameters which was optimized with evolutionary PSO
algorithm. The detailed hybridization procedure shown in Fig. 2 was
used to develop the LSWPF RF mathematical model. The PSO algorithm
works by random initialization of placing agents in problem space
having the characteristic features of being able to explore and exploit the
entire multidimensional search space for global best solution during an
iteration level (Brantson et al., 2018c). However, each agent considers
its current position, current velocity, distance to personal experience
(pbest) and distance to the global experience (gbest) in order to adjust its
position and to be a potential best candidate solution. Similarly, if the
evaluated fitness function value of the best swarm agent is better than
13
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 12. (a) 2D reservoir grid cells (b) No polymer flooding (normal waterflood, Newtonian fluid) (c) Pressure field.

the evaluated fitness function value of gbest, then there is the need to
xnþ1 ¼ xnk þ vnþ1
k : (29)
update gbest and its fitness function value with the position. In all, this k

simultaneous modification and updating of particles velocity and posi­ where n þ 1 and n are current and previous timestep, vnk is the velocity of
tion continues until convergence end criterion is attained and the
an agent k at an iteration level n, a1 and a2 are positive acceleration
function is approximated. Eberhart and Kennedy (1995) proposed PSO
constant terms which changes the velocity of an agent between pbestk and
metaheuristic algorithm which compute agents updated velocities and
gbest , w is an inertia weight which vary between minimum and maximum
positions which is expressed in Eqs. (28) and (29), respectively as:
weight by decreasing linearly and nonlinearly as iterative generation
�
vnþ1 ¼ vnk þ a1 � rand1 � pbestk xnk þ a2 � rand2 increases, rand is the random number uniformly distributed in the in­
k
� terval of [0,1], xnk is the current position of an agent k at an iteration level
� gbest xnk ; (28)
n, gbest is the exploitation ability of the global best solution in search

14
E.T. Brantson et al.
Fig. 13. (a) Low salinity water flooding (No polymer flooding) (b) Pressure field (c) Salt concentration.
space and pbestk is the exploration ability of the personal best solution of
particle k at an iteration level n, wvnk is the exploration capability of
PSO, a1 � rand1 � ðpbestk xnk Þ and a2 � rand2 � ðgbest xnk Þ
depicts private social thinking and collaboration of agents, respectively.
This study employs an inertia weight (w) function introduced into
the PSO algorithm. Shi and Eberhart (1998) were the first authors to
introduce inertia weighting function into an already existing PSO al­
gorithm which improves its performance through weight adjustment.
Yang et al. (2011) in their work, backed this claim that, there are many
variants such as inertia function which improves the standard PSO al­
gorithm and serves as a virtual mass to stabilize the motion of the agents
for faster rate of convergence. The inertia weight (w) given in Eq. (30)
15
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
handles the exploration and exploitation of the search space and
continuously update and correct the value of velocity as:
�
vnþ1 ¼ wvnk þ a1 � rand1 � pbestk xnk þ a2 � rand2
k
�
� gbest xnk : (30)
2.4.1. PSO-ANN RF statistical performance metrics
In order for the PSO-ANN RF model to be trained and tested in this
paper, model performance needs to be assessed quantitatively to check if
the models are matching the actual recovery performance datasets. The
measures used in this study are average absolute percentage error
(AAPE) and coefficient of determination (R2) expressed in Eqs. (31) and
(32) as:
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 14. (a) Aqueous polymer solution (High salinity water) (b) Pressure field (c) Salt concentration (d) Polymer concentration.

16
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Fig. 15. (a) Aqueous polymer solution (Low salinity water) (b) Pressure field (c) Salt concentration (d) Polymer concentration.

17
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Table 3
Numerical modeling and simulation physical input parameters.
Reservoir Parameters Data S.I
Values Units

Fitting constant of viscosity on polymer and salt 4

concentration of Flory-Huggins equation (a1)
Fitting constant of viscosity on polymer and salt 0.1
concentration of Flory-Huggins equation (a2)
Fitting constant of viscosity on polymer and salt 6.0
concentration of Flory-Huggins equation (a3)
Fitting constant of viscosity on polymer and salt 0.24
concentration of Flory-Huggins equation (sp)
Langmuir adsorption constant, b 1 m3/kg
Polymer Adsorption by rock 0.0017 (mg/
kg)
Residual resistance factor (RRF) 1.2
Maximum adsorption, Cmax pad 7.5 � kg/kg
10 5
Fig. 16. Recovery factors for LSWPF, HSWPF LSWF and normal waterflood. Rock density, ρr 2700 kg/m3
3
Oil viscosity (μo) 10 � 10 Pa.s
Water viscosity (μo) 1 � 10 3 Pa.s
N �� �
100% X �
�Ai Pi �; Reservoir initial pressure (Pi) 1 � 105 Pa
AAPE ¼ (31) Number of cell volume (Nx) 50
N i¼1 � Ai �
Number of cell volume (Ny) 50
0 12 Reservoir length (Lx) 1 m
P
N Reservoir width (Ly) 1 m
B ðA Pi Þ � ðPi Pi Þ C Well injection pressure (Pinj) 2 � 105 Pa
B i¼1 i C
R2 ¼ B ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi C
B N ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiC ⋅
s (32) Initial water saturation (Swi). 0.40 fraction
@ P� 2 2 �A
Average Porosity ðϕÞ 0.20 fraction
ðAi Pi Þ � ðPi Pi Þ Average Permeability (Kaverage) 2 � 10 12 m2
i¼1
Correlation Lengths ðλx ; λy Þ 0.0–0.05 m
Initial polymer concentration 0 ppm
where Ai is the actual RF value, Pi is the predicted RF value, and N is the
Injected polymer concentration 1000 ppm
number of sample points, Pi is the mean of the predicted RF value. Initial salt concentration 1000 ppm
Injected salt concentration 0–1000 ppm
3. Results and discussion Pressure accuracy 0.0001
Aqueous phase accuracy 0.0001
Minimum allowed saturation change 0.01
3.1. 1D PHREEQC and numerical simulator validation Minimum allowed pressure change 100 Pa
3
NB 1 kg/m ¼ 1000 ppm.
PHREEQC (pH-REdox-EQuilibrium in C programing language)
geochemical module of the United State Geological Survey (USGS)
software developed by Parkhurst and Appelo (2013) was employed to column was flushed with different concentrations of calcium and sodium
perform geochemical computations for 1D transport phenomenon of chloride solutions with the cation exchanger in the column. The same
diffusion and dispersion. A 1D column cation exchange brine slug number of grid cells (40) used for the validation of the numerical
flushing system is created for LSWF and HSWF displacement of forma­ simulator ion-transport exchange correspond to the same number of
tion water through numerical simulation and PHREEQC 1D transport rock exchanger and the numerical solutions required. In using PHREEQC
data block. In addition to that, PHREEQC transport data block transport data block, it includes the number of grid cells (batch cell),
geochemical codes were written to validate the 1D column of multiple number of shifts for simulation, accounts for pore volumes flowing via
ion exchange brine slug flushing system for both LSWF and HSWF. The the gridblocks and the explicit definition of time or distance.
formation water column was made up of calcium and sodium chloride at Table 1 shows the input data used as a base-case in the numerical
equilibrium state with the cation exchanger (X). Then, the chemical reservoir simulator for validating the multiple ion exchange in the fluid

Fig. 17. Combined PSO and ANN architectures for oil recovery factor performance.

18
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

Table 4
Statistical data range for the PSO-ANN RF mathematical Model.
Parameter/Units Minimum Average Maximum Data
Type

Simulation time (days) 0 10,773.788 21,000 Input

Porosity 0.200 0.204 0.207 Input
Permeability (m2) 1.85 � 1.951 � 2.020 � Input
10 12 10 12 10 12
Water saturation 0.20 0.707 1.000 Input
Polymer concentration 0.00 802 1000 Input
(ppm)
Salt concentration 0.00 579 1000 Input
(ppm)
7 7
Reservoir pressure 0.00 1.002 � 10 1.010 � 10 Input
(Pa)
Recovery factor @VDP 0.00 0.136 0.286 testing
¼ 0.4
Recovery factor @VDP 0.00 0.105 0.211 testing
¼ 0.6
Recovery factor @VDP 0.00 0.046 0.092 testing
¼ 0.8

Table 5
Optimal PSO algorithm training parameters.
Parameter PSO Values

Maximum number of iterations 1000

Acceleration constants 2
Inertia weight (maximum and minimum) 0.9–0.4
Population size (Number of particles) 20
Initial velocity 10–20% of position
Lower and upper band (search space range) 1.5 to 1.5
Random numbers (rand1 and rand2) 0–1
Maximum tolerance 1 � 10 6

column. Similarly, the same number of homogeneous gridblocks used in

the PHREEQC multi-ion exchange modeling was used for the numerical
reservoir simulation for the displacement of the water slug column.

3.1.1. LSWF multiple ion exchange validation

Fig. 18. Cross plots of PSO-ANN training and testing (a) PSO-ANN training
In this base-case simulation with PHREEQC and the numerical model for oil recovery factor, (b) Testing of oil recovery factor using the
reservoir simulator developed, low salinity brine slug was injected to developed PSO-ANN mathematical model.
displace the chemical column made up of mobile formation water.
Table 2 shows the brine compositions used for both the injected and
formation brines in the PHREEQC geochemical module and the nu­
merical reservoir simulator. The simple ion exchange model considered Table 6
in this study is given by Eq. (33) as: Performance evaluation of PSO-ANN proxy modeling for training and testing.
Models Training Testing VDP ¼ Testing VDP ¼ Testing VDP ¼
1 2þ 1
Ca þ Na X ↔ Ca X2 þ Naþ ⋅ (33) 0.4 0.6 0.8
2 2
AAPE (%) 0.3957 0.9749 0.5047 0.4123
where X is the rock exchanger (denotes the clay mineral in the reservoir R2 0.9968 0.9677 0.9877 0.9885
rock).
Furthermore, the evolution of sodium, calcium and chlorine ions in
formation water was produced up to 0.8 injected pore volume. From
the effluent profile for PHREEQC geochemical module and the numer­
there onwards, the formation water breakthrough quickly and decreases
ical reservoir simulator (LSWF) are illustrated in Fig. 3a. It can clearly be
due to the dilution with low salinity water frontal advance with later
seen from Fig. 3a that the effluent made up of sodium, calcium and
breakthrough of LSW (Al-Ibadi et al., 2019). This finding agrees with the
chlorine ions were in equilibrium with the cation exchanger and the
experimental observations, where the concentration of the divalent ions

Table 7
Coefficients for normalized (Z).
Input layer weight matrix Input layer bias vector Hidden layer weight vector Output layer bias vector

W1j

j¼1 j¼2 j¼3 j¼4 j¼5 j¼6 j¼7 b1 W2 b2

1.0502 1.5000 0.0129 0.1371 0.0660 0.0362 0.4777 0.0902 0.7118 0.0902
1.5000 0.8233 0.1236 1.5000 0.8104 1.5000 1.5000 1.5000 0.3630
1.5000 1.5000 0.0017 0.2675 0.1515 0.1135 1.5000 0.1900 0.5943

19
E.T. Brantson et al.
reduced during LSWF EOR process (Rivet, 2009). Also, Dang (2015)
obtained similar results as reported in this study. Therefore, there was a
strong agreement between the match for PHREEQC geochemical module
and the numerical reservoir simulator developed. Furthermore, with
reference to the chemical reaction in Eq. (33), there was chemical ex­
change between calcium and sodium ions on the surface of the exchange
site during the LSWF. As a result, the concentration of the equivalent
fraction of ðNa XÞ decreases at the exchange site whilst the low con­
centration of the equivalent fraction of ðCa X2 Þincreases at the ex­
change site of the LSWF.
3.1.2. HSWF multiple ion exchange validation
Also, another base case simulation scenario was run for HSWF for
PHREEQC geochemical module and the numerical reservoir simulator
developed. Table 2 contains the injected and formation brine concen­
trations used for the transport phenomenon modeling. Similarly, it can
be noticed from Fig. 3b that the effluent profile made up of sodium,
calcium and chlorine ions were in equilibrium with the cation exchanger
and the formation water was produced up to about 0.8 pore volume
injected. Then, the concentration of the formation water begins to in­
crease due to high saline brine injection. It is also observed that the
PHREEQC pure water column displacement matches with the numerical
reservoir simulator predictions. Similar results were obtained by Dang
(2015) as reported in this study. According to cation exchange hy­
pothesis, when high saline brine is injected into petroleum reservoirs,
sodium ion is adsorbed on the exchange site whilst calcium ion is eluted
with reference to reaction Eq. (34):
1 1
Naþ þ Ca X ↔ Na X þ Ca2þ ⋅ (34)
2 2
3.1.3. Validation of LSWPF simulator with LSWPF coreflood test
Kozaki (2012) investigated the synergy of secondary LSWPF (LSP II
followed by LSB flood) at a laboratory scale on mixed wet Berea sand­
stone cores. The final RF and residual oil saturation (Sor) was 52% OOIP
and 35%, respectively. The LSWPF simulator developed in this work was
used to predict and confirm the coreflood test results obtained by Kozaki
(2012) with a good history match as shown in Fig. 3c.
3.2. Generation of porous media realizations
3.2.1. Proposed method
The results generated from the modeling of the porous media using
our proposed method is discussed herein. The proposed method for the
porous media constructed were coupled to the LSWPF CEOR simulator
and demonstrated with examples as shown in Fig. 4. The degree of
heterogeneity can be seen on each simulated map using our proposed
method when Dysktra-Parson coefficient (VDP) is 0.1, 0.5 and 0.9
(Fig. 4a, b and c). Fig. 4d shows the porosity field that was generated
from our proposed method.
3.2.2. Stochastic 2D multi-fractal random field
For stochastic 2D multi-fractal random field, Hurst exponents (0.1,
0.5, 0.7 and 0.9) were used to characterize the degree of the heteroge­
neity in each of the simulated permeability maps. Hurst exponent with
smaller magnitude indicates pore structure homogeneity and better
reservoir permeability (Fig. 5a and b), and vice versa (Fig. 5c and d). It
can be observed that Fig. 5d shows more heterogeneity among the re­
alizations generated from south east towards north east.
3.2.3. Circulant embedding method
CEM in Fig. 6 provides an exact sampling method when a non-
negative definite embedding is available with uniformly spaced sam­
ple points on a grid. Additionally, CEM is the most effective and
preferred method for stationary covariance models that are not isotropic
as TBM is limited to isotropic fields. CEM generalizes to higher
20
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
dimension, but the structure of the covariance matrix is complex. The
difference in realizations generated for Fig. 6a, b and Fig. 6c, d is due to
anisotropic exponential correlation and Gaussian covariance function
used, respectively.
3.2.4. Turning bands method
The TBM is used for approximating realizations of isotropic Gaussian
random fields. From the first two figures in Fig. 7a and b, artifact
banding occurs in the simulated map due to smaller number of lines (15
lines) specified for the multidimensional simulation and not ideal re­
alizations for fluid flow simulation. This phenomenon was not observed
in the permeability fields of our proposed method, CEM, and stochastic
2D multi-fractal random field. However, with Fig. 7c and d, there were
no artifact banding in the random field with improvement in the ergodic
properties of the simulated map when sufficient number of lines (1000
lines) were used which converges. Brantson et al. (2018b) also attained
artifact banding with 15 lines, however with 1000 lines, there was an
improvement in the realization texture attained with no noticeable trace
of artifact bandings as shown in Fig. 7c and d. Moreover, in order to
consider Fig. 7c and d for fluid flow simulation due to the problem of
artifact banding beyond visual check, a validation test was carried out
comparing the theoretical variogram algorithm plotted against distance
when 1000 lines were used with the simulated variogram. It can be
observed from Fig. 8 that there was almost a close match between the
theoretical model and the average simulated statistics affirming no strip
off in the simulated maps (Fig. 7c and d).
3.2.5. Porous media realizations computational times
The simulated permeability field realizations generated in Figs. 4–7
CPU times were compared as shown in Fig. 9. It is vital to note that
memory storage capacity becomes important when large numbers of
geostatistical realizations are to be generated. The plot in Fig. 9 indicates
that our proposed method has the least CPU run time than CEM, TBM
and stochastic 2D multi-fractal random field method when one reali­
zation was generated from each geostatistical method. Lastly, all the
four geostatistical methods attained fast and efficient simulation time at
good computational cost.
3.3. 2D numerical modeling and simulation
3.3.1. Relative permeability datasets
The two sets of input data for the relative permeability curves in
Fig. 10 consisting of low and high salinity polymer flood curves used to
simulate the hybrid EOR wettability alteration from the mixed-wet
system to water-wet system due to multiple ion exchange. The relative
permeability datasets are made up of oil relative permeability (kro),
water relative permeability (krw) and water saturation for both LSWF
and HSWF shown in Fig. 10. However, LSWF changes the shape of the
relative permeability curve in Fig. 10 from HSWF due to linear inter­
polation between the two curves at each timestep in each grid cell.
3.3.2. Convergence of the linear solvers
A fast convergence pre-conditioner solution technique of algebraic
multigrid (AMG) linear solver combined with an acceleration method of
biconjugate gradients stabilized method (BI-CGSTAB) was used to solve
the systems of equations. Fig. 11 shows the plot of AMG with BI-CGSTAB
preconditioner and standalone AMG residuals for the multiphase flow
transport in porous media. It is very vital to note that most iterative
schemes solution convergence will never be zero, but can be within a
specified tolerance limit for capturing shock front. From Fig. 11 residual
monitors, it can be inferred that the residuals decrease as simulation
progresses with increasing timesteps and convergence of the numerical
solution without any imbalances in the system. Furthermore, the lower
the residual value is, the more accurate the numerical solution is for the
conserved quantities. Also, both AMG with BI-CGSTAB preconditioner
and standalone AMG exhibit stable monotonic numerical solution
E.T. Brantson et al.
convergence. In effect, the residuals undulate within the specified
tolerance limit for both AMG with BI-CGSTAB preconditioner and
standalone AMG as shown in Fig. 11.
3.3.3. Normal waterflood, LSWF, HSWPF and LSWPF numerical
simulation
Heterogeneous 2D permeability (VDP ¼ 0.7, range of most reservoirs)
and porosity fields from the proposed method in this study were used for
the normal waterflood, LSWF, HSWPF and LSWPF numerical simulation.
The injection well is on the left-hand side while the production well is on
the right-hand side of the grid cells with both wells in a linear horizontal
flow geometry shape (Fig. 12a). Table 3 shows the input data used to
perform the numerical simulation runs in this study. The water soluble
synthetic straight-chain polymer used for this numerical modeling and
simulation is known as hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), Flopaam™
3630S with higher molecular weight dissolved in low saline brine used
for most EOR applications. The degree of hydrolysis of HPAM is 25%.
However, we conducted a grid refinement study which shows that
increasing the grid resolution does not significantly impact the obtained
results. In order to minimize excessive run times for realistic modeling
workflow, 50 � 50 x 1 cell volumes were used.
Fig. 12b (normal waterflood) shows no polymer added to water for
flooding which was characterized by channeling and viscous fingering
phenomena. These subsurface phenomena involve shielding, coales­
cence, spreading, successive tip splitting, skeletal fingers and fluid
channeling in high flow zones which reduces the mobilization of oil
within pores. It can also be observed from Fig. 12c that the pressure field
around the injector is very high as it decays and propagates towards the
horizontal production well at the right-hand side.
It should be noted that the mass concentration in this study is given
by 1 kg/m3 ¼ 1000 ppm. Fig. 13 shows LSWF simulation with reduced
viscous fingering in Fig. 13a. Meanwhile, Fig. 13b and c indicate pres­
sure and salt concentration (500 ppm), respectively. It can be detected
from Fig. 14a (HSWPF) that the displacement is better than normal
waterflood and LSWF in Figs. 12b and 13a, respectively with stable
sharp fronts (less viscous fingering). Fig. 14b shows the pressure field
around the injector to be high as it decays and propagates towards the
production well. Fig. 14c and d shows the fluid flow simulation of
HSWPF scenario of salt concentration of 1000 ppm and polymer con­
centration of 1000 ppm, respectively.
In the case of LSWPF in Fig. 15a (salt concentration of 500 ppm,
polymer concentration of 1000 ppm), the displacement improves oil
recovery with piston-like displacement (the polymer fronts are self-
sharpening) characterized by two displacement fronts unlike in the no
polymer flooding base case (Fig. 12b). The salt concentration of 500
ppm is lower than HSWPF salt concentration of 1000 ppm (Fig. 14c)
which favours a higher aqueous phase viscosity. It can also be seen in
Fig. 15a that the number of fingers/channels has reduced (i.e., sharp
fronts) as compared to Figs. 12b–14a. Additionally, HSWPF and LSWPF
in Figs. 14a and 15a, respectively, delayed breakthrough than in
Fig. 12b normal waterflood as the aqueous mixture solution moves
slower in the proposed porous media with an increase in oil relative
permeability. The stable shock front in Fig. 15a can be attributed to the
fact that the elastic viscosity (shear thickening) is maintained because of
the low saline content used.
Fig. 15b, c and 15d show the pressure, salt and polymer concentra­
tion profiles for the LSWPF simulation. Fig. 16 indicates the recovery
factor (RF) for LSWPF, HSWPF, LSWF and normal waterflood as 39%,
31%, 24% and 11%, respectively for 50 days of production. From the
above results, it can be seen from Figs. 14a and 15a that cation ex­
change, wettability alteration and mobility control by HPAM polymer
are responsible for the improvement in high ultimate oil recovery due to
the hybrid EOR effect. Not only does LSWPF improve RF, but also has the
potential to reduce the amount of scale precipitation in the reservoir (Al
Kalbani et al., 2018). Moreover, the viscosity of polymers in reservoirs
with HSW degrade and it is better to employ LSW as a preflush
21
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751
(Khorsandi et al., 2017).
3.4. PSO-ANN RF mathematical modeling
Herein, the mathematical correlation for RF derived from the PSO-
ANN hybridized algorithm implemented in this study is demonstrated
in Fig. 17.
3.4.1. Data normalization
The following numerical simulation parameters namely, simulation
time, porosity, permeability, water saturation, polymer concentration,
salt concentration and reservoir pressure were used as inputs in the
input layer and recovery factor as the output layer (Fig. 17). The datasets
were divided into training and testing and used for the recovery factor
performance evaluation. The optimal hidden number of neurons for the
hidden layer was determined through several trial experimentations.
The data were pre-processed and normalized to scale the dataset be­
tween 1 and -1 for constant variation, faster convergence and avoiding
trapping in local minima (Brantson et al., 2018c, d) using Eq. (35) as:
ðymax ymin Þ � ðxi xmin Þ
yi ¼ ymin þ (35)
ðxmax xmin Þ
where yi indicate the normalized RF dataset, xi is simulation input data
values, xmin and xmax represent the minimum and maximum input values
of the simulated dataset with ymin and ymax set to 1 and 1, respectively.
3.4.2. Statistical analysis of input and output datasets
This section deals with the statistical input data fed into the PSO-
ANN model with RF as the output feature. Both the influential input
parameters and outputs are indicated in Table 4. Also, Table 5 presents
the various PSO optimal parameters used in the training of the PSO-ANN
RF model attained by sensitivity analyses.
3.4.3. Development of PSO-ANN RF mathematical correlation
LSWPF numerical simulations were run and the data obtained (3200
data points) from the simulationsas indicated in Table 4 were used in
building the PSO-ANN RF smart proxy model. The various obtained
testing recovery data were based on permeability variations (VDP ¼ 0.4,
0.6 and 0.8) and the trained data (VDP ¼ 0.7) generalizes accurately on
the RF predictions with less error and time in less than 1 min. The op­
timum number of neurons in the hidden layer for the PSO-ANN RF
model was 3. Fig. 18a illustrates the simulated dataset against the pre­
dicted data obtained during the training of the PSO-ANN RF predictive
model development while Fig. 18b shows the blind testing of the PSO-
ANN RF model with other permeability fields RF performance data­
sets. The ideal line indicates a good linear fit with cluster of data points
around the ideal line for both training and blind testing datasets with
AAPE and R2 indicated in Table 6.
The mathematical equation from the PSO-ANN RF model with the
weights and biases was obtained, based upon the results attained from
the trained data points with 3 hidden neurons, required to determine the
RF in the normalized form (Z), thus, Eq. (36). The RF output obtained
using Eq. (36) is in a normalized form which must be denormalized to
get actual RF predictions as stated in Eq. (37) as:
" !#
XN XJ
Z¼ w2i tan sig w1i;j xj þ b1i þ b2 ; (36)
j¼1 j¼1
RF ¼ 0:1572Z þ 0:5⋅ (37)
where x is the input variables in the normalized form, N is the number of
neurons, J is the number of input variables, w1 is the hidden layer
weight, w2 is the output layer weight, and b1 and b2 being the hidden and
output layer biases, respectively.
For instance, LSWPF RF is predicted by using the seven variables
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

(Table 4) where the value of w1 will be considered at j ¼ 1 for simulation
time, at j ¼ 2 for porosity, at j ¼ 3 for permeability, at j ¼ 4 for water
saturation, at j ¼ 5 for polymer concentration, at j ¼ 6 for salt concen­
P
tration and at j ¼ 7 for reservoir pressure. The term Jj¼1 w1i;j xj for Z from
P AMG and AMG combined with BI-CGSTAB linear solvers were within
Table 7 is as follows: Jj¼1 w1i;j xj ¼ w1;1 x1 þ w1;2 x2 þ w1;3 x3 þ w1;4 x4 þ
w1;5 x5 þ w1;6 x6 þ w1;7 x7 ;where the values of w1,1, w1,2, w1,3, w1,4, w1,5,
w1,6, and w1,7 are 1.0502, 1.5000, 0.0129, 0.1371, 0.0659,
0.03623 and 0.4777, respectively. This will be repetitive for the 3
rows of the matrix and the subsequent values for each row being ob­
tained from Table 7. The term x represents the input variables where x1
¼ simulation time, x2 ¼ porosity, x3 ¼ permeability, x4 ¼ water satu­
ration, x5 ¼ polymer concentration, x6 ¼ salt concentration, and x7 ¼
reservoir pressure.
For the first time, this paper extracts a mathematical equation from
the PSO-ANN proxy model and was used for LSWPF oil RF predictions as
shown in Fig. 18b without the need for running costly numerical
reservoir simulations. The LSWPF RF mathematical equation that was
developed in this paper provides a simple and direct estimation for en­
gineers to save time and forecast RF with a high accuracy using such an
economical technique.
4. Conclusions
In this work, our main aims were to take a first step toward numerical
modeling and simulation of LSWPF phenomenon implementation using
cell-centered finite volume method to capture the nonlinearity of the oil
displacement as well as smart proxy model development. The following
conclusions were drawn from the study:
1. The simulator was validated with PHREEQC geochemical package
and a secondary LSWPF coreflood test with an excellent history
matching.
2. A novel method of generating porous media was proposed to inves­
tigate the physico-chemical effects of hybridized LSWPF EOR. The
proposed porous media, stochastic multi-fractal random field and
CEM permeability field realizations did not exhibit artificial banding
unlike TBM realizations.
3. Normal waterflood exhibit subsurface instabilities (fingering and
channeling) while LSWF, HSWPF and LSWPF showed piston-like
type of oil displacement with more stable advanced front.
4. The LSWPF CEOR numerical simulator residual errors for standalone
the acceptable tolerance limits.
5. The RFs for LSWPF, HSWPF, LSWF and normal waterflood were
39%, 31%, 24% and 11%, respectively. Also, the RF obtained for
LSWPF model is a strong basis towards full-field scale
implementation.
6. The extracted weights and biases from the PSO-ANN algorithm used
to derive the mathematical equation was able to predict blind testing
RF performances accurately with AAPE less than 1% without the
need for running costly simulations.
Author contributions statement
Eric Thompson Brantson: Conceptualization, Methodology, Soft­
ware. Binshan Ju: Funding Acquisition, Supervision. Prince Opoku
Appau: Writing and original draft preparation. Perpetual Hope
Akwensi: Data Curation and Visualization. Godwill Agyare Peprah:
Validation, Investigation. Nannan Liu: Resources, Project administra­
tion. Elvis Selase Aphu: Writing- Reviewing and Editing. Evans Annan
Boah: Data Curation, Writing - review & editing. Abraham Aidoo
Borsah: Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for
National Science and Technology Major Projects (2016ZX05011-002
and 2017ZX05009-005). The kind effort from Dr. A. A. Eftekhari for his
tireless and humble assistance in carrying out this research is greatly
appreciated. Lastly, we would also like to thank the six anonymous re­
viewers for their comments and suggestions that were helpful in
improving the manuscript.

Appendix A

TVD Schemes Tested with LSWPF Numerical Simulator

High numerical resolution is therefore required to limit numerical diffusion which would otherwise biases or deteriorates simulation results for
hybridized viscous polymer slug and low salinity modeling process with the numerical simulator developed. The following equations were imple­
mented for high grid solution (reduce smearing of concentration fronts):
Zhou (1995) proposed CHARM which is not second order TVD was implemented as shown in Eq. (A1) as:
8
< rð3r þ 1Þ; r > 0; limr→∞ ϕ ðrÞ¼3
>
ðr þ 1Þ2 (A1)
cm
ϕcm ðrÞ ¼
>
:
0 ; r�0

Koren (1993) flux slope limiter function is third order accurate for sufficiently smooth data given in Eq. (A2) as:
� � � ���
ð1 þ 2rÞ
ϕkn ðrÞ ¼ max 0; min 2r; min ; 2 ; lim ϕkn ðrÞ ¼ 2 (A2)
3 r→∞

Appendix B. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106751.

22
E.T. Brantson et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 187 (2020) 106751

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