Mesh Generation for 3D Geological Reservoirs with Arbitrary Stratigraphic Surface Constraints

Abstract

With the advanced field observation, image and drilling technology, geological structure of reservoirs can be described in more details. A novel 3D mesh generation method for geologica l reservoir mode ls is proposed and imple mented with arbitra ry stratigraphical surface constraints, which ensures the detailed geologica l structure and materia l properties are well described and analysed. Specifica lly, the stratigraphic interfaces a re firstly e xt racted and meshed, and then the tetrahedron mesh is generated with the constraints of the meshed surfaces. The proposed approach includes the following five steps: (1) e xtract ing stratum interfaces; (2) creat ing a background mesh with size field on the interfaces; (3) constructing geodesic isolines fro m the interface boundaries to the interior; (4) e mp loying a geodesic - based approach to create triangles on the area between adjacent isolines and to combine the m together; (5) generating tetrahedron mesh for 3D reservoirs with constraints of the above surface triangular mesh. Th is approach has been imple mented and applied to the La wn Hill reservoir model to demonstrate its effectiveness and usefulness.