Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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

Applying a new method to solve diffusivity equation for gas reservoirs

A. Gandomkar a, M.R. Rahimpour a,b,n, A. Jahanmiri a
a
b

Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71345, Iran
Gas Center of Excellence, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71345, Iran

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 1 November 2012
Accepted 27 September 2014
Available online 7 October 2014

Diffusivity equation is the general partial differential equation used to describe the ow of any uid
owing in a radial direction in porous media. The main objective of this study is to present a new
numerical scheme based on orthogonal collocation (OC) method to solve the diffusivity equation for
heterogeneous and homogeneous gas reservoirs. OC is an approximate analytical technique which
categorizes in the weighted residuals methods. The advantage and priority of the OC method over exact
analytical solution (i.e., Laplace transform) is in the cases that the heterogeneity and variation of
reservoir properties such as porosity and permeability with position or pressure could not be neglected;
in these cases, the exact analytical solution is very tedious and may be impossible. The diffusivity
equation has been solved by both OC and exact analytical solutions. To demonstrate the reliability of the
proposed method, the results of OC method have been compared with those achieved using exact
analytical solution. Average absolute deviation percent (AAD%) has been used for determining the
suitable number of collocation points to give acceptable error and best matching between approximate
and analytical results. Sensitivity analysis indicates that increasing the numbers of collocation points
result in signicant improvement of OC method accuracy and its capability on dynamic pseudo pressure
prediction. The minimum AAD% of 0.113 from the exact analytical predictions has been obtained with 25
collocation points. The results indicate that the proposed approximate method with these numbers of
collocation points can predict the reservoir pseudo pressure trend with an acceptable accuracy in
heterogeneous and homogeneous gas reservoirs.
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
diffusivity equation
pseudo pressure
pseudo time
orthogonal collocation
gas reservoir

1. Introduction
Multiple researchers in recent times consider gas diffusivity
equation to solve a variety of gas reservoir problems. Pseudo
pressure has historically been used in analytical solutions of the
diffusivity equation for analysis of real gas ow in conventional gas
reservoirs (Khadivi and Soltanieh, 2014). The current study focuses
on rate transient analysis of tight and shale gas reservoirs during
transient linear ow period for a single fractured well producing
under constant well bottom-hole pressure. Wu and Li (2014)
generalized mathematical framework model and numerical
approach for unconventional-gas-reservoir simulation. The model
and numerical scheme are based on generalized ow models with
unstructured grids. Couto and Marsili (2013) present the application of the integral transform technique in the development of a
general analytical solution for the multidimensional hydraulic
diffusivity equation. The solution methodology deals directly with
time-dependent well rates and boundary conditions, sparing the
n
Corresponding author at: Department of Chemical Engineering, School of
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71345, Iran.
Tel.: 98 711 2303071; fax: 98 711 6287294.
E-mail address: rahimpor@shirazu.ac.ir (M.R. Rahimpour).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2014.09.028
0920-4105/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

use of the superposition principle. Barreto and Peres (2012)

develop a nonlinear hydraulic diffusivity equation that governs
the ow of compressible uids in porous media. In this study, a
general solution that properly accounts for both uid property
behavior and variable rate is presented. The proposed solution,
which is derived from the Greens-function method by recasting
the effect of the viscositycompressibility product variation as a
nonlinear source term, can handle variable gas rate for several
well-reservoir geometries of practical interest. Zainal and Yee
(2010) present the gasliquid diffusivity measurement and its
applications to the transient shut-in modeling. Qanbari and
Clarkson (2013) consider a new method for production data
analysis of tight and shale gas reservoirs during transient linear
ow period.
To develop analysis and design techniques for well testing, we
must make several simplifying assumptions about the well and
reservoir being modeled. These assumptions are introduced as
needed to combine the principle of mass conservation, an equation of uid motion, and an equation of state (EOS). From these
fundamental relations, we derive the diffusivity equation, which is
used to model uid ow in a porous medium. In a homogeneousacting, cylindrical reservoir, uid ows radially from the reservoir
to the wellbore. Therefore, our diffusivity equation will be derived

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A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

Nomenclature
K 1; K 0
I1 ; I0
S
kH
Kv
Pw
PpD
Pb
H
ht
k
Kr
K
Kz
N
n
q
r

m
Z
Psc
Tsc
T
qg
Bg
M

Bessel function
Bessel function
Laplace parameter, dimensionless
horizontal permeability
vertical permeability
well pressure (psia)
dimensionless pseudo pressure
low base pressure (psia)
reservoir thickness (ft)
total reservoir thickness (ft)
permeability (md)
permeability in r direction (md)
permeability in direction (md)
permeability in z direction (md)
number of collocation points
number of points in calculation of AAD%
volumetric ow rate at standard conditions (mscf/day)
radius (ft)
porosity (fraction)
gas viscosity (cp)
gas deviation factor, dimensionless
standard condition pressure (psia)
standard condition temperature (oR)
reservoir temperature (oR)
gas ow rate (scf/day)
gas formation volume factor (bbl/scf)
molecular weight

in terms of a radial coordinate system (Appendix A). The diffusivity

equation for compressible uid (i.e., gas) ow, using various forms
of pressure and time variables, is (Ahmed, 2010):



1
p P
C t
p P
r

1
r r z r
0:0002637K z t

1.1. Diffusivity equation in terms of pseudo pressure and pseudo time

variables
The rst combination of problems was solved rigorously in the
mid 1970s by Al-Hussainy and Ramey (1966), when they introduced the gas pseudo pressure function. Sometimes it is also
called the real gas potential. That is why all gas well test equations
are solved in terms of pseudo pressure, and not pressure. The
transformation of pressure to pseudo pressure is an exact transformation, and is completely rigorous. Thus the liquid ow
solution can be used for gas, provided that pseudo pressure is
used instead of pressure. Pseudo time is a mathematical time
function that accounts for the high compressibility of gas. In 1980,
Agarwal (1979) introduced an approximate transformation called
pseudo time. Agarwal was focused on pressures in the wellbore,
and he dened pseudo time in terms of the viscosity and
compressibility at the wellbore. Moreover, the Agarwal pseudo
time denition did not solve the problem, because it was focused
on the wellbore pressure. Palacio and Blasingame (1993) and
coworkers introduced a new denition of pseudo time to account
for depletion effects. Instead of dening the pseudo time transformation in terms of wellbore conditions like Agarwal did, they
dened it in terms of the average pressure in the reservoir. A more
rigorous method of linearizing Eq. (1) is with the real gas Pseudo
pressure and Pseudo time Variables. The pseudo pressure and

rw
P
y
t
tap
A
B
U
re
rD
Ct

well radius (ft)

pressure (psia)
dependent variable
time (h)
pseudo time function
rst derivative vectors
second derivative vectors
dimensionless variable
drainage radius (ft)
dimensionless radius
total compressibility factor including rock and uid
compressibility factors (psi  1)

Greek letters

porosity
parameter of Jacobi polynomial
parameter of Jacobi polynomial
uid viscosity
diffusivity constant

Abbreviations
ODE
PDE
OC
AAD%

ordinary differential equation

partial differential equation
orthogonal collocation
average absolute deviation percent

Pseudo time allow Eq. (1) to be solved without the limiting

assumptions that certain gas properties are constant with
pressure.
To express Eq. (1) in a form similar to the diffusivity equation
for liquid ow, we dene a pseudo pressure and a pseudo time
function as Matthews and Russell (1967), Ahmed (2010):
Z P
P
P p P 2
dp
2
z
Pb
Z
t ap t

t
0

dt
C t

The diffusivity equation for gas ow in terms of pseudo

pressure and pseudo time is:



P p
P p
1

4
r r
0:0002637K t ap
r
The initial and boundary conditions in terms of pseudo pressure and pseudo time can be expressed mathematically as follows:
The initial condition is
P p r; t 0 P pi

The inner boundary condition (constant-rate production, r rw)

is:



P p
50300P sc Tq
r

6
KhT sc
r r rw
Another boundary equation i.e., dened in the outer reservoir
boundary and states that the reservoir behaves as if it were innite
in size, i.e., re 1 (Slip Slider, 1983; Ahmed, 2010).
P p r e ; t ppi

A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

1.2. Dimensionless forms of the diffusivity equation

The diffusivity equation has several parameters that describe a
wide variety of specic situations. By dening some dimensionless
variables, we can write the diffusivity equation in a convenient,
general form. These dimensionless variables are not unique but are
dened (rather than derived) quantities selected for convenience
in a particular situation. To write the diffusivity equation with
dimensionless variables, we nd logical groupings of variables that
appear in the differential equations and initial and boundary
conditions (Craft and Hawkins, 1991; Ahmed, 2010).
The inner boundary condition suggests that the dimensionless
pseudo pressure is as follows:


KhT sc P pi  P p
P pD
8
50300qTP sc
The dimensionless pseudo time dened as follows:
t apD

0:0002637kt ap
r e 2

And
rD

r
re

10

The resulting dimensionless form of diffusivity equation and

initial and boundary conditions in terms of pseudo pressure and
pseudo time are as follows:



P pD
P pD
1

rD
11
r D r D
r D
t apD
And the initial condition is
P PD r D ; t aD 0 0

12

The inner boundary condition is


P p
50300P sc Tq

r
KhT sc
r r rw

13

or


rw
P PD rD 0 1 while r D
0
re

14

The outer boundary condition is

ppD r D 1; t aD 0

15

(Zolotukhin and Ursin, 2000):

"
!
#
162:6qg Bg g
Kt
P a;i  P a;wf
log
 3:23
Kh
g C t r w 2

295

18

where, g ; C t ; Bg ; and Z in Eqs. (16)(18) can be evaluated at

average drainage area pressure, p, and reservoir temperature.

3. Orthogonal collocation method

The orthogonal collocation method was rst introduced by
Villadsen and Stewart in 1967. They discovered that collocation
points chosen as the roots of orthogonal polynomials gave good
results due to some attractive features of these polynomials. They
chose the trial functions as the Jacobi polynomials and picked the
collocation points as the corresponding zeros of these polynomials
(Villadsen and Stewart, 1967). Thereafter Finlayson (1972) used it
to solve many problems in chemical engineering. Fan et al. (1971)
used it to solve equations arising from chemical reactors. Finlayson
(1980) applied it to nonlinear problems. In recent times, so many
investigators (Adomaitis and Lin, 1998; Alhumaizi, 2006; Lefervre
et al., 2000; Ruthven, 1984) have applied this method to solve a
variety of chemical and petroleum engineering problems.
For parabolic PDEs i.e., diffusivity equation, the collocation
method is applied on the spatial domain to transform the PDEs
to a set of coupled ODEs of initial value type (in contrast to the
algebraic result for elliptic equation). The coupled ODEs can then
be solved by any method such as RungeKuttaGill method. Using
OC to solve ODEs involves transforming the original ODE to a set of
algebraic equation. The Lagrangian interpolation is used as a
convenient tool for interpolation between collocation points.
The advantage of these methods is in the cases that the values
of reservoir properties such as porosity and permeability are
presented as a function of position or pressure in the reservoir
or sometimes in the discrete values form. In these cases, the exact
analytical solution is difcult or impossible, which justies the
priority of the OC method (Huang and Russell, 1996; Ghanaei and
Rahimpour, 2010).
With consideration of the dimensionless form of boundary
conditions, it is inferred that the differential equation is symmetric
at rD 1; therefore, the following variable change should be
considered:
u 1  r D 2
hence:

2. Solutions to the diffusivity equation

p
rD 1  u

Solution of diffusivity equation requires that we specify two

boundary conditions and an initial condition. A realistic and
practical solution is obtained if we assume that (I) a well produce
at the constant rate, into the wellbore (2) the well, with wellbore
radius rw is centered in a cylindrical reservoir of radius re; and
(3) the reservoir is at uniform pressure. Pi, before production.
2.1. Pseudo pressure and pseudo time variables

Pa

1
2


g z

P


Pp


g z
P

t a g C t t ap g C t

Z
0

p
dp
g z
t

dt
g C t

16

In terms of new independent variable, the dimensionless

diffusivity equation and boundary condition become:
p


ppD
2 ppD
u u ppD
19
4u
2 1
2
t aPD
u
1u
u


ppD


u1

Then the variable ppD is replaced with y therefore:

p


y
2 y
u u y
4u 2 2 1 
t aPD
1  u u
u
yu 1 1

17

In terms of adjusted variables, the unsteady-state equation

(approximation solution) for slightly compressible liquids becomes

20

21
22

As discussed in the literature (Rice and Do, 1995), the Jacobi

parameters, and , have the value of 1 and 0.5 respectively in
the weighting function of the Jacobi polynomial. The weighting
function for this particular orthogonality condition dened with

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A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

reference to the SturmLiouville equation is:

W x x 1 x

And the Jacobi polynomial of degree N has the power series

representation:

increasing the number of collocation points on accuracy of

approximate solution has been investigated through calculation
the Average Absolute Deviation percent, by this way the optimum
number of collocation point has been selected.

J N; x  1N  i N;i xi

4. Diffusivity equation in heterogeneous gas reservoir

Evaluation Eq. (21) at the interior collocation point i give:

p 


y
2 y
u ui y
4ui 2 2 1  i
i 1; 2; ; N
23

t aPD i
1  ui u i
u i

The derivation of the governing equation for three dimensional

ow of gas in a cylindrical heterogeneous gas reservoir by constant
rate production is similar to (Eq. (1)).









1
Kr
P
1
K P

K z P
2

r r
r
z

z
r
1

34

0:0002637 t

i0

If Aij and Bij dened by:

Aij

dlj ui
du

Bij

d lj ui
du2

24

25

where lj(u) is called the Lagrange interpolation polynomial and

dened by:
N 1 u  u
i

li u 
j 1 ui  uj

26

jai

Once the N1 interpolation points are chosen, then all the

Lagrangian building blocks i.e., lj(u) are completely known using Eq.
(26), and thus the values of Aij and Bij can be calculated by Eq. (24) and
Eq. (25). Also these are constant and dont change during iteration and
simulation.
Then, the rst and second order derivatives at the collocation
point i are given by the formula:

N1
y
Aij yj
27
u i
j1

N1
2 y
Bij yj
u2 i
j1

The ow of gas in the heterogeneous reservoir is governed by

(Eq. (35)). This equation is non-linear as a result of strong
dependency of gas properties to pressure and temperature e.g., Z
and , and the existence of heterogeneity terms such as Kr, K , and
Kz in this equation. Obviously, the occurrence of this nonlinearity
is mathematically inconvenient and thus should be eliminated if
possible. In an attempt to reduce the non-linearity of Eq. (35) one
may use pseudo-pressure (Eq. (2)) and pseudo time (Eq. (3))
function. In terms of pseudo pressures and pseudo time, the
governing equation becomes:









P p
P p
P p
P p
1
1

Kr r
K
Kz
2

r r
z
0:0002637 t ap
r

z
r
36

28

When we substitute Eqs. (27) and (28) into Eq. (23), the
following equation can be obtained:
N1
yi
C ij yj
t aPD
j1

29

where the matrix C is dened as:

p 


u ui
Aij
C ij 4ui Bij 2 1  i
1 ui

30

Next, by taking the last term of the series out of the summation
and make use of the boundary condition, y(u 1) yN 1:
yi
C y C i;N 1 yN 1
t aPD j 1 ij j
N

31

From the boundary condition, we have:

yu 1 yN 1 1

32

Substitution Eq. (32) into Eq. (31) leads to:

N
yi
C ij yj C i;N 1
t aPD j 1

For a compressible uid and from the real gas law (Eq. (59))
and expanding right-hand side of Eq. (34) one obtains:









1
K r P P
1
K P P

K z P P
r
2

r r
z
z r
z
z z
r
C t
p P
35

0:0002637 z t

i 1; 2; ; N

33

The above equation represents N coupled ODEs and they are

readily solved by using the methods such as RungeKuttaGill
method.
In this study, the set of coupled ODEs as mathematically expressed by Eq. (33), have been solved by fourth-order
RungeKutta method with the step size of 0.001. The selected
value of step size worked out well for all the simulations. Effect of

Eq. (36) is not linear because Kr, K , and Kz are functions of

reservoir heterogeneity and thus the reservoir is not isotropic. The
diffusivity equation for heterogeneous gas reservoirs has several
parameters that describe a wide variety of specic situation. For
the ease of calculation, the following dimensionless diffusivity
equation is dened as:
!



P pD
2 P pD
2 P pD
P pD
1
1
rD
37
2
2
2
r D r D
r D
t apD
rD
z D

where:
ZD

Z
rw

38

Eq. (37) is the dimensionless form of (Eq. (36)). Now we need to

obtain the corresponding initial and boundary conditions of Eq.
(37) in dimensionless form. For this purpose we start with the
dimensional form of initial and boundary conditions for radial
vertical diffusivity gas equation. Initially, the pressure throughout
the drainage area of the well is equal to Pi. This condition together
with dimensionless variables is expressed as follows:
P PD r D ; t aD 0 0

39

The inner boundary condition (constant rate production at

r rw, t4 0) is derived with Darcys law. Using the denitions of
the pseudo-pressure, together with dimensionless variables, the
inner boundary condition may express as:
P pD
1
r D

0 o zD o

h
rw

40

A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

Using the same procedure, the outer boundary condition in

dimensionless form is expressed as follows:



P pD
0 at r r e ; t D 4 0; no  flow boundary
41
r D rD re
rw



P pD r

D-1

at r r e ; t D 4 0; Infinite acting reservoir

42

In addition of radial boundary conditions, there are two noow and innite acting reservoir boundary conditions at the
bottom and upper section of the reservoir. Those conditions in
dimensionless form are dened as:



P pD
0 t D 40
43
zD zD 0

P pD
zD

297

Table 2
Pseudo pressure as a function of pressure.
Pressure (psia)

mg (cp)

Pseudo pressure (psia2/cp)

0
400
800
1200
1600
2000
2400
2800
3200
3600
4000
4400

0.01270
0.01286
0.01390
0.01530
0.01680
0.01840
0.02010
0.02170
0.02340
0.02500
0.02660
0.02831

1.000
0.937
0.882
0.832
0.794
0.770
0.763
0.775
0.797
0.827
0.860
0.896

0.000
13.2  106
52.0  106
113.1  106
198.0  106
304.0  106
422.0  106
542.4  106
678.0  106
816.0  106
950.0  106
1089.0  106


h

zD r wt

t D 40

44

To investigate the reliability the results of OC method, solutions

of diffusivity equation have been performed by both OC and
analytical approaches. The rock and uid properties of the case
study have been reported by Ahmed (2010). Characteristic properties of a gas, wellbore and reservoir uid properties which its well
is producing at a constant ow rate of 2000 Mscf/day under
unsteady-state ow conditions have been listed in Tables 1 and 2.
Fig. 1 presents the results of solution of diffusivity equation by
exact analytical and approximate solutions. Predicted reservoir
pseudo pressure as a function of radial distance after 24 h
production has been plotted using orthogonal collocation with 5,
10, 20, and 25 collocation points. The result of OC with 25
orthogonal points which matches best among all four shown
approximate solutions. This plot suggests that the predictions of
OC method close to exact results as the number of collocation
point increased.
The same analysis performs on the selected case study after
15 h of production. Fig. 2 shows the comparison between the exact
analytical and approximate solution. It can be seen that OC
method with 25 collocation points can simulate the exact results
with smaller error and better matching obtained rather than OC
with 5, 10 and 20 collocation points.
Table 3 summarizes the results of sensitivity analysis, which
has been done to obtain optimum numbers of collocation points
where result in good matching between OC method results and
exact analytical solution. In this table the AAD% for wide ranges of
collocation points have been tabulated. It is obvious that minimum
Table 1
The physical properties of gas, rock, wellbore and uid properties (Ahmed, 2010).
Properties

Value

Components Dead oil (mol%) Live oil (mol%)

h
rw
re
ct
Pi
Tr
q
Pc C6 (psia)
S.G C6

65 md
0.15
15 ft
0.30 ft
1000 ft
3  10  4 psi  1
4400 psia
140 1F
2000 Mscf/day
263
0.8181

H2S
CO2
C1
C2
C3
IC4
NC4
IC5
NC5
C6
MW C6

0.01
0
0
0.43
0.89
0.9
1.34
1.21
4.77
90.45
199

0.005
9.621
26.459
2.628
10.083
0.467
0.695
0.627
2.475
46.937

t= 24 hr

Radius (ft)

Fig. 1. Comparison between the approximate and exact analytical solution after
24 h (N, number of collocation points).

Wellbore Pseudo pressure

5.1. Using OC method to solve diffusivity equation in homogeneous

gas reservoir

Pseudo pressure

5. Results and discussion

t= 15 hr

Radius (ft)

Fig. 2. Comparison between the approximate and exact analytical solution after
15 h.

AAD% of 0.113 is corresponded to approximate solution with 25

collocation points. Average reservoir pseudo pressure has also
been calculated utilizing both exact and approximate solutions
with the different number of collocation points. The capability of
approximate solution for predicting the average reservoir pseudo
pressure also improved through increasing the number of collocation points.
For better comparison and demonstration of this statement, the
graphical scheme of variation of AAD% respect to the number of
collocation point has been plotted in Fig. 3. As this gure indicates,
increasing the numbers of collocation points result in improvement
of accuracy of OC method and reducing the AAD%. Hence, OC with
25 collocation points in the radial direction was chosen as a best
approximate solution. It is found that with these points, a good
accuracy and convergence can be obtained compared to exact
analytical solution. It is demonstrated that the proposed

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A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

Table 3
Comparison between exact and orthogonal collocation solution.
Exact solution

%
AAD

Number of collocation
points

Average pseudo
pressure

Average pseudo
pressure

5
10
20
25

1018,572,775
1077,666,839
1083,036,279
1085,056,821

1085,250,570
1085,250,570
1085,250,570
1085,250,570

Pseudo pressure

Orthogonal collocation

7.675
1.023
0.551
0.113

r = 600 ft
r = 400

 exact calc: 
yi  yi 1
AAD% N
n  100
i
yexact
i
n is the number of data points.

r = 200 ft

Time (hr)

N=5

% AAD

Fig. 5. Comparison between exact and approximate solution (25 points)pseudo

pressure proles as a function of time at 200, 400 and 600 ft distances from the
wellbore.

N = 10
N =20

N = 25

Fig. 3. AAD% for different numbers of collocation points.

Application of any numerical method should be validated with

well-known commercial software packages for single-phase ow
problems. In this study, the comparison between capability of the
proposed method and some of the well-known commercial software packages in simulation the bottom-hole pseudo pressure has
been checked.
5.2. Using OC method to solve diffusivity equation in heterogeneous
gas reservoir

Pseuado pressure

The Laplace-domain solution for dimensionless pseudopressure can be obtained by taking Laplace transforms with
respect to dimensionless pseudo-time and nite Fourier cosine
transforms with respect to ZD coordinate from all boundary
condition equations.
The exact solution for a nite and an innite reservoir are
obtained as follows:
1

P pD r D ; zD ; S; n P pD P pD

0 o zD o

ht
rw

45
1

where P pD is the Laplace transform of P pD . The parameters P pD and

2

Time (hr)

Fig. 4. Bottom-hole pseudo pressure proles as a function of time.

P pD for innite reservoirs are:

 p
K 0 rD S
1
P pD r D ; S; 0 p p
S
S SK 1
2

approximate solution with 25 collocation points carried out satisfactory exact results, and a good agreement was observed between
exact and OC method.
Actual bottom-hole owing pseudo pressures over time have
been calculated using exact analytical as well as approximate
solution with 25 collocation points. For better comparison
between these analyses, the graphical scheme of bottom-hole
pseudo pressure has been shown in Fig. 4. This gure demonstrates a good agreement between approximate and exact solution
to the prediction of well owing bottom-hole pseudo pressure.
Fig. 5 illustrates the comparison between the exact and
approximate pseudo pressure trends as a function of production
time for the some given radial distances. Predicted reservoir
pseudo pressure using OC method with 25 collocation points have
been presented and compare with exact analytical ones. It was
observed that an acceptable coincides with the exact solutions
have been performed at 600, 400 and 200 feet radial distance from
the producing well.

P pD

46






2ht 1 sin nh=ht
z

K 0 r D cos n
ht
h n 1 n S K 1

47

where the parameter is expressed as:

v
#
u"

u nr w 2
S
t
ht

48
1

And for the nite reservoir parameters P pD and P pD are obtained

as:
1
P pD

 p  p
 p  p
K 1 r De S I 0 r D S I 1 r De S K 0 r D S
p

S SK 1 I 1 r De  K 1 r De I 1 

P pD

49






2ht 1 sin nh=ht K 1 r De I0 r D I 1 r De K 0 r D 
z
cos n

nS K 1 I1 r De  K 1 r De I1 
h n 1
ht

50
Eqs. (50) and (47) are functions of z, to obtain a uniform
pressure distribution along a perforated portion of the well; these

A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300

Table 4
The physical properties of heterogeneous gas reservoir (Slider, 1983).

Exact

1.211E+09

OC (N=25)

High Permeable Case

Case 2 (high permeable)

Properties

Value

Properties

Value

ct
Pi
Tr
q
re
kH
Kv

h
rw

3.2  10  4 psi  1
5100 psia
200 1F
4500 Mscf/day
1200 ft
1 md
0.1 md
0.18
25 ft
0.30 ft

ct
Pi
Tr
q
re
kH
Kv

h
rw

2.8  10  4 psi  1
4300 psia
180 1F
3200 Mscf/day
1300 ft
177 md
12 md
0.23
15 ft
0.30 ft

Pseudo Pressure

1.21E+09

Case 1 (low permeable)

Analytical

299

1.209E+09
1.208E+09
1.207E+09

r = 500 ft
1.206E+09
1.205E+09
1.204E+09

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Time (hr)
Fig. 7. Pseudo pressure proles as a function of time at 500 ft distances from the
wellbore for heterogeneous gas reservoir (High Permeable Case).

OC (N=25)

1.22E+09

Low Permeable Case

Pseudo pressure

1.22E+09

As demonstrated in Fig. 7, the unsteady-state radial-vertical model

developed here is examined with numerical OC method for high
permeability gas reservoir. This gure demonstrates a good agreement between approximate and exact solution to the prediction of
well owing bottom-hole pseudo pressure in a high permeability
gas reservoir.

1.219E+09
1.219E+09
1.218E+09

r = 500 ft
1.218E+09

6. Conclusion

1.217E+09
1.217E+09

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Time (hr)
Fig. 6. Pseudo pressure proles as a function of time at 500 ft distances from the
wellbore for heterogeneous gas reservoir (Low Permeable Case).

equations may be integrated with respect to z over the limits of

the open portion. The results are (Eqs. (51) and (52)) describe the
average pressure distribution at the wellbore (r D 1), for the nite
and innite reservoir, respectively.
2

P pD r w ; S; n

2ht


K 1 r De I 0 I 1 r De K 0 
h
sin 2 n
ht
K 1 I1 r De  K 1 r De I1 

2
2
h 2 n 1 n S

51
2

P pD r w ; S; n


K 0
h
2
sin
n
2
2
ht
h 2 n 1 n S K 1
2ht

52

Eq. (45) consists of two terms in Laplace-domain; the rst term,

1

P pD , accounts for the behavior of a fully penetrating well (see

In this work, the OC method has been applied to solve the

equation of the single phase gas ow in homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media, which is known as the diffusivity equation to
predict the pseudo pressure prole in gas reservoirs. To evaluate the
effectiveness of the OC, the homogeneous and heterogeneous gas
reservoirs which are related to the unsteady state ow have been
considered, and obtained results with proposed method compare
with those which have been obtained by exact analytical solution. By
this way, the reliability and accuracy of OC method has been checked
and benchmarked. Numbers of collocation points have been changed
to give satisfactory error between exact and analytical solution. The
results demonstrate that increasing the numbers of collocation
points result in improvement of accuracy of OC method. Hence, the
minimum error, i.e., AAD% is related to the 25 collocation points with
value of 0.113 in comparison with the exact analytical solution for a
chosen gas reservoir mode. With comparisons of results of this
proposed method with available method (e.g., reservoir simulation),
in terms of both accuracy and cost, for prediction of well owing
bottom-hole pseudo pressure with heterogamous gas reservoir
properties, we can judge the OC method is practical.

Eqs. (49) and (46)) and the second term, P pD , is associated with the
effect of partial penetration. This series term act as a modier to
pressure drop, taking into account the effect of limited ow entry.
Now, with the aid of a numerical Laplace inverter one may obtain
the solution for dimensionless wellbore pressure (the inversion of
P pD r D 1; zD ; S; n ) in the dimensionless pseudo-time domain,
tD. In this section, the comparison between owing wellbore
pseudo-pressure predicted by the analytical model and that of
the numerical OC is examined. In the formulation developed for
this model, the reservoir is considered to be a heterogeneous gas
reservoir with the physical parameters which were described in
Table 4. As demonstrated (in Section 5.1) that the proposed
approximate solution with 25 collocation points carried out
satisfactory exact results, therefore, in Figs. 6 and 7 the wellbore
pseudo-pressure as a function of time is compared between the
two solution methods. The case of low permeability reveals that
this model may be appropriate for low permeability gas reservoir.

Appendix A. Development of the radial differential equation

The radial differential equation, which is the general differential equation used to model time-dependent ow systems, is now
developed. Consider the volume element shown in Fig. 8. The
element has a thickness r and is located r distance from the
center of the well. Mass is allowed to ow into and out of the
volume element during a period t.
With these denitions, a mass balance can be written around
the volume element over the time interval t. In word form, the
mass balance is written as:


0:234

ru

r r
t

53

Eq. (53) is the continuity equation and is valid for any ow

system of radial geometry. To obtain the radial differential equation that will be the basis for time-dependent models, pressure

300

A. Gandomkar et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 124 (2014) 293300


p P 1 z p 

z t P p P z

p P 
p P
C C g C t

z t f
z t

61

Combining Eqs. (60) and (61) and using eld units, gives the
diffusivity equation for compressible uid (Craft and Hawkins,
1991; Ahmed, 2010).



1
p P
C t
p P
r

10
r r z r
0:0002637K z t

References

Fig. 8. Volume element used in the development of the radial diffusivity equation.

must be introduced and eliminated from the partial derivative

term on the right-hand side of Eq. (53). To do this, Darcys
equation must be introduced to relate the uid ow rate to
reservoir pressure:
u 0:001127

k P
r

54

By substituting this equation into Eq. (53), lead to develop the

ow of any uid owing in a radial geometry in porous media



0:234
K
P

0:001127 r

55
r r

r
t
To develop a solution to Eq. (55) for the compressible uid, or
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PV ZnRT

56

1 1 dz z p 
Cg 

P Z dP p P z

57

Cf

1
P

58

From the real-gas law,

g

MP
RT z

59

And now we can rewrite Eq. (55) as:





M p P
1

Mp
r

RT z r
0:0002637K t
RT z

1
r r
or
1
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p P
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0:0002637 K t
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60

The porosity from the partial derivative term on the right-hand

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the formation compressibility by the Following equation:
 p  p
p  p P
p P

t z
z t
t z
z P t
P z t

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