Deep-learning-based surrogate model for reservoir simulation with time-varying well controls

Abstract

A new deep-learning-based reduced-order modeling (ROM) framework is proposed for application in subsurface flow simulation. The reduced-order model is based on an existing embed-to-control (E2C) framework and includes an auto-encoder, which projects the system to a low-dimensional subspace, and a linear transition model, which approximates the evolution of the system states in low dimension. In addition to the loss function for data mismatch considered in the original E2C framework, we introduce a physics-based loss function that penalizes predictions that are inconsistent with the governing flow equations. The loss function is also modified to emphasize accuracy in key well quantities of interest (e.g., fluid production rates). The E2C ROM is shown to be analogous to an existing ROM, POD-TPWL, which has been extensively developed for subsurface flow simulation. The new ROM is applied to oil-water flow in a heterogeneous reservoir, with flow driven by nine wells operating under time-varying control specifications. A total of 300 high-fidelity training simulations are performed in the offline stage, and the network training requires 10-12 minutes on a Tesla V100 GPU node. Online (runtime) computations achieve speedups of over a factor of 1000 relative to full-order simulations. Extensive test case results, with well controls varied over large ranges, are presented. Accurate ROM predictions are achieved for global saturation and pressure fields at particular times, and for injection and production well responses as a function of time. Error is shown to increase when 100 or 200 (rather than 300) training runs are used to construct the E2C ROM. Overall the E2C ROM is shown to provide reliable predictions with levels of perturbations in the well controls that are much larger than those used with existing POD-TPWL treatments. The current model is however limited to 2D systems, and the required number of training simulations is much larger than that for POD-based ROMs.