Two-Phase Flows in Geothermal and Petroleum Reservoirs

Abstract

Two-phase flows of boiling water and steam in geothermal reservoirs satisfy a of conservation equations for mass and energy which can be combined to yield a hyperbolic wave equation for liquid saturation changes. Recent work has established that in the absence of conduction, and with fixed saturation and pressure boundary conditions, the geothermal saturation equation is asymptotically identical with the Buckley-Leverett equation of oil recovery theory. Here we summarise this work and show that it may be extended to include conduction. If salt is present then the analogy is with the petroleum reservoir polymer flood model.