Imperial College London

ProfessorChristopherPain

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Earth Science & Engineering

Professorial Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9322c.pain

 
 
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Location

 

4.96Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Publication Type
Year
to

407 results found

Kumar P, Zavala-Reyes JC, Kalaiarasan G, Abubakar-Waziri H, Young G, Mudway I, Dilliway C, Lakhdar R, Mumby S, Kłosowski MM, Pain CC, Adcock IM, Watson JS, Sephton MA, Chung KF, Porter AEet al., 2023, Characteristics of fine and ultrafine aerosols in the London underground., Science of the Total Environment, Vol: 858, ISSN: 0048-9697

Underground railway systems are recognised spaces of increased personal pollution exposure. We studied the number-size distribution and physico-chemical characteristics of ultrafine (PM0.1), fine (PM0.1-2.5) and coarse (PM2.5-10) particles collected on a London underground platform. Particle number concentrations gradually increased throughout the day, with a maximum concentration between 18:00 h and 21:00 h (local time). There was a maximum decrease in mass for the PM2.5, PM2.5-10 and black carbon of 3.9, 4.5 and ~ 21-times, respectively, between operable (OpHrs) and non-operable (N-OpHrs) hours. Average PM10 (52 μg m-3) and PM2.5 (34 μg m-3) concentrations over the full data showed levels above the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines. Respiratory deposition doses of particle number and mass concentrations were calculated and found to be two- and four-times higher during OpHrs compared with N-OpHrs, reflecting events such as train arrival/departure during OpHrs. Organic compounds were composed of aromatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are known to be harmful to health. Specific ratios of PAHs were identified for underground transport that may reflect an interaction between PAHs and fine particles. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) chemical maps of fine and ultrafine fractions show they are composed of Fe and O in the form of magnetite and nanosized mixtures of metals including Cr, Al, Ni and Mn. These findings, and the low air change rate (0.17 to 0.46 h-1), highlight the need to improve the ventilation conditions.

Journal article

Wu X, Abubakar-Waziri H, Fang F, Dilliway C, Wu P, Li J, Yao R, Bhavsar P, Kumar P, Pain CC, Chung KFet al., 2023, Modeling for understanding of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) spread and design of an isolation room in a hospital, Physics of Fluids, Vol: 35, ISSN: 1070-6631

We have modeled the transmission of coronavirus 2019 in the isolation room of a patient suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. An adaptive mesh computational fluid dynamics model was used for simulation of three-dimensional spatial distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in the room. The modeling set-up is based on data collected in the room during the patient stay. Many numerical experiments have been carried out to provide an optimal design layout of the overall isolation room. Our focus has been on (1) the location of the air extractor and filtration rates, (2) the bed location of the patient, and (3) consideration of the health and safety of the staff working in the area.

Journal article

Venkateshwaran A, Kumar M, Kumar MBS, Jebaseelan DD, Sivakumar R, Joshi A, Pain Cet al., 2023, Numerical study of the effect of geometry on the behaviour of internally heated melt pools for in-vessel melt retention, PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, Vol: 156, ISSN: 0149-1970

Journal article

Cheng S, Chen J, Anastasiou C, Angeli P, Matar OKK, Guo Y-K, Pain CCC, Arcucci Ret al., 2023, Generalised Latent Assimilation in Heterogeneous Reduced Spaces with Machine Learning Surrogate Models, JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING, Vol: 94, ISSN: 0885-7474

Journal article

Silva VLS, Heaney CE, Li Y, Pain CCet al., 2022, Data assimilation predictive GAN (DA-PredGAN) applied to a spatio-temporal compartmental model in epidemiology, Journal of Scientific Computing, Vol: 94, ISSN: 0885-7474

We propose a novel use of generative adversarial networks (GANs) (i) to make predictions in time (PredGAN) and (ii) to assimilate measurements (DA-PredGAN). In the latter case, we take advantage of the natural adjoint-like properties of generative models and the ability to simulate forwards and backwards in time. GANs have received much attention recently, after achieving excellent results for their generation of realistic-looking images. We wish to explore how this property translates to new applications in computational modelling and to exploit the adjoint-like properties for efficient data assimilation. We apply these methods to a compartmental model in epidemiology that is able to model space and time variations, and that mimics the spread of COVID-19 in an idealised town. To do this, the GAN is set within a reduced-order model, which uses a low-dimensional space for the spatial distribution of the simulation states. Then the GAN learns the evolution of the low-dimensional states over time. The results show that the proposed methods can accurately predict the evolution of the high-fidelity numerical simulation, and can efficiently assimilate observed data and determine the corresponding model parameters.

Journal article

Kumar P, Kalaiarasan G, Bhagat RK, Mumby S, Adcock IM, Porter AE, Ransome E, Abubakar-Waziri H, Bhavsar P, Shishodia S, Dilliway C, Fang F, Pain CC, Chung KFet al., 2022, Active air monitoring for understanding the ventilation and infection risks of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in public indoor spaces, Atmosphere, Vol: 13, Pages: 1-24, ISSN: 2073-4433

Indoor, airborne, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is a key infection route. We monitored fourteen different indoor spaces in order to assess the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. PM2.5 and CO2 concentrations were simultaneously monitored in order to understand aerosol exposure and ventilation conditions. Average PM2.5 concentrations were highest in the underground station (261 ± 62.8 μgm−3), followed by outpatient and emergency rooms in hospitals located near major arterial roads (38.6 ± 20.4 μgm−3), the respiratory wards, medical day units and intensive care units recorded concentrations in the range of 5.9 to 1.1 μgm−3. Mean CO2 levels across all sites did not exceed 1000 ppm, the respiratory ward (788 ± 61 ppm) and the pub (bar) (744 ± 136 ppm) due to high occupancy. The estimated air change rates implied that there is sufficient ventilation in these spaces to manage increased levels of occupancy. The infection probability in the medical day unit of hospital 3, was 1.6-times and 2.2-times higher than the emergency and outpatient waiting rooms in hospitals 4 and 5, respectively. The temperature and relative humidity recorded at most sites was below 27 °C, and 40% and, in sites with high footfall and limited air exchange, such as the hospital medical day unit, indicate a high risk of airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Journal article

Kadeethum T, O'Malley D, Ballarin F, Ang I, Fuhg JN, Bouklas N, Silva VLS, Salinas P, Heaney CE, Pain CC, Lee S, Viswanathan HS, Yoon Het al., 2022, Enhancing high-fidelity nonlinear solver with reduced order model, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2045-2322

Journal article

Wu P, Qiu F, Feng W, Fang F, Pain Cet al., 2022, A non-intrusive reduced order model with transformer neural network and its application, PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, Vol: 34, ISSN: 1070-6631

Journal article

Xiang J, Chen B, Latham J-P, Pain Cet al., 2022, Numerical simulation of rock erosion performance of a high-speed water jet using an immersed-body method, Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, ISSN: 1365-1609

Conference paper

Phillips T, Heaney CE, Benmoufok E, Li Q, Hua L, Porter AE, Chung KF, Pain CCet al., 2022, Multi-Output Regression with Generative Adversarial Networks (MOR-GANs), Applied Sciences, Vol: 12, Pages: 1-24, ISSN: 2076-3417

Regression modelling has always been a key process in unlocking the relationships betweenindependent and dependent variables that are held within data. In recent years, machine learninghas uncovered new insights in many fields, providing predictions to previously unsolved problems.Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been widely applied to image processing producinggood results, however, these methods have not often been applied to non-image data. Seeing thepowerful generative capabilities of the GANs, we explore their use, here, as a regression method. Inparticular, we explore the use of the Wasserstein GAN (WGAN) as a multi-output regression method.The resulting method we call Multi-Output Regression GANs (MOR-GANs) and its performanceis compared to a Gaussian Process Regression method (GPR) - a commonly used non-parametricregression method that has been well tested on small datasets with noisy responses. The WGANregression model performs well for all types of datasets and exhibits substantial improvements overthe performance of the GPR for certain types of datasets, demonstrating the flexibility of the GAN asa model for regression.

Journal article

Woodward H, Schroeder A, Le Cornec C, Stettler M, ApSimon H, Robins A, Pain C, Linden Pet al., 2022, High resolution modelling of traffic emissions using the large eddy simulation code Fluidity, Atmosphere, Vol: 13, ISSN: 2073-4433

The large eddy simulation (LES) code Fluidity was used to simulate the dispersion of NOx traffic emissions along a road in London. The traffic emissions were represented by moving volume sources, one for each vehicle, with time-varying emission rates. Traffic modelling software was used to generate the vehicle movement, while an instantaneous emissions model was used to calculate the NOx emissions at 1 s intervals. The traffic emissions were also modelled as a constant volume source along the length of the road for comparison. A validation of Fluidity against wind tunnel measurements is presented before a qualitative comparison of the LES concentrations with measured roadside concentrations. Fluidity showed an acceptable comparison with the wind tunnel data for velocities and turbulence intensities. The in-canyon tracer concentrations were found to be significantly different between the wind tunnel and Fluidity. This difference was explained by the very high sensitivity of the in-canyon tracer concentrations to the precise release location. Despite this, the comparison showed that Fluidity was able to provide a realistic representation of roadside concentration variations at high temporal resolution, which is not achieved when traffic emissions are modelled as a constant volume source or by Gaussian plume models.

Journal article

Heaney C, Liu X, Go H, Wolffs Z, Salinas P, Navon IM, Pain CCet al., 2022, Extending the capabilities of data-driven reduced-order models to make predictions for unseen scenarios: applied to flow around buildings, Frontiers in Physics, Vol: 10, Pages: 1-16, ISSN: 2296-424X

We present a data-driven or non-intrusive reduced-order model (NIROM) which is capable of making predictions for a significantly larger domain than the one used to generate the snapshots or training data. This development relies on the combination of a novel way of sampling the training data (which frees the NIROM from its dependency on the original problem domain) and a domain decomposition approach (which partitions unseen geometries in a manner consistent with the sub-sampling approach). The method extends current capabilities of reduced-order models to generalise, i.e., to make predictions for unseen scenarios. The method is applied to a 2D test case which simulates the chaotic time-dependent flow of air past buildings at a moderate Reynolds number using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The procedure for 3D problems is similar, however, a 2D test case is considered sufficient here, as a proof-of-concept. The reduced-order model consists of a sampling technique to obtain the snapshots; a convolutional autoencoder for dimensionality reduction; an adversarial network for prediction; all set within a domain decomposition framework. The autoencoder is chosen for dimensionality reduction as it has been demonstrated in the literature that these networks cancompress information more efficiently than traditional (linear) approaches based on singular value decomposition. In order to keep the predictions realistic, properties of adversarial networks are exploited. To demonstrate its ability to generalise, once trained, the method is applied to a larger domain which has a different arrangement of buildings. Statistical properties of the flows from the reduced order model are compared with those from the CFD model in order to establish how realistic the predictions are.

Journal article

Hamzehloo A, Bahlali ML, Salinas P, Jacquemyn C, Pain CC, Butler AP, Jackson MDet al., 2022, Modelling saline intrusion using dynamic mesh optimization with parallel processing, ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES, Vol: 164, ISSN: 0309-1708

Journal article

Heaney CE, Wolffs Z, Tómasson JA, Kahouadji L, Salinas P, Nicolle A, Navon IM, Matar OK, Srinil N, Pain CCet al., 2022, An AI-based non-intrusive reduced-order model for extended domains applied to multiphase flow in pipes, Physics of Fluids, Vol: 34, Pages: 1-22, ISSN: 1070-6631

The modeling of multiphase flow in a pipe presents a significant challenge for high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models due to the high aspect ratio (length over diameter) of the domain. In subsea applications, the pipe length can be several hundreds of meters vs a pipe diameter of just a few inches. Approximating CFD models in a low-dimensional space, reduced-order models have been shown to produce accurate results with a speed-up of orders of magnitude. In this paper, we present a new AI-based non-intrusive reduced-order model within a domain decomposition framework (AI-DDNIROM), which is capable of making predictions for domains significantly larger than the domain used in training. This is achieved by (i) using a domain decomposition approach; (ii) using dimensionality reduction to obtain a low-dimensional space in which to approximate the CFD model; (iii) training a neural network to make predictions for a single subdomain; and (iv) using an iteration-by-subdomain technique to converge the solution over the whole domain. To find the low-dimensional space, we compare Proper Orthogonal Decomposition with several types of autoencoder networks, known for their ability to compress information accurately and compactly. The comparison is assessed with two advection-dominated problems: flow past a cylinder and slug flow in a pipe. To make predictions in time, we exploit an adversarial network, which aims to learn the distribution of the training data, in addition to learning the mapping between particular inputs and outputs. This type of network has shown the potential to produce visually realistic outputs. The whole framework is applied to multiphase slug flow in a horizontal pipe for which an AI-DDNIROM is trained on high-fidelity CFD simulations of a pipe of length 10 m with an aspect ratio of 13:1 and tested by simulating the flow for a pipe of length 98 m with an aspect ratio of almost 130:1. Inspection of the predicted liquid volume

Journal article

Wu P, Pan K, Ji L, Gong S, Feng W, Yuan W, Pain Cet al., 2022, Navier-stokes Generative Adversarial Network: a physics-informed deep learning model for fluid flow generation, NEURAL COMPUTING & APPLICATIONS, Vol: 34, Pages: 11539-11552, ISSN: 0941-0643

Journal article

Cheng M, Fang F, Navon IM, Zheng J, Tang X, Zhu J, Pain Cet al., 2022, Spatio-Temporal Hourly and Daily Ozone Forecasting in China Using a Hybrid Machine Learning Model: Autoencoder and Generative Adversarial Networks, JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS, Vol: 14

Journal article

Jolaade M, Silva VLS, Heaney CE, Pain CCet al., 2022, Generative Networks Applied to Model Fluid Flows, 22nd Annual International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS), Publisher: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, Pages: 742-755, ISSN: 0302-9743

Conference paper

Arcucci R, Casas CQ, Joshi A, Obeysekara A, Mottet L, Guo Y-K, Pain Cet al., 2022, Merging Real Images with Physics Simulations via Data Assimilation, 27th International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par), Publisher: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, Pages: 255-266, ISSN: 0302-9743

Conference paper

Silva V, Regnier G, Salinas P, Heaney C, Jackson M, Pain Cet al., 2022, Rapid modelling of reactive transport in porous media using machine learning

Reactive transport in porous media can play an important role in a variety of processes in subsurface reservoirs, such as groundwater flow, geothermal heat production, oil recovery and CO2 storage. However, numerical solution of fluid flow in porous media coupled with chemical reaction is very computationally demanding. Simultaneously, the success of machine learning in different fields has opened up new possibilities in reactive transport simulations. In this project, we focus on using machine learning techniques to replace the geochemical kinetic calculations generated by PHREEQC. PHREEQC is an open-source aqueous geochemical code that can be used in stand-alone mode or as a reaction module coupled with a flow and transport simulator. Here, we apply machine learning approaches to produce a fast proxy model of PHREEQC. This enables us to have a coupling between transport and reaction while minimizing the added computational cost. We focus initially on calcite dissolution during CO2 sequestration. Different machine learning techniques are investigated and compared to see which is more appropriate for the calcite dissolution problem. The proposed machine learning approach is designed to deal with different time-step sizes and unstructured elements. It accelerates the numerical simulation and proves to be practical to replace the reaction model presented in PHREEQC. This considerably reduces the computational cost of reactive transport while ensuring excellent simulation accuracy. The rapid modelling of reactive transport in porous media has a broad potential to replace many other phase equilibrium models across a wide range of reactive transport problems.

Conference paper

Silva VLS, Salinas P, Jackson MD, Pain CCet al., 2021, Machine learning acceleration for nonlinear solvers applied to multiphase porous media flow, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Vol: 384, Pages: 1-17, ISSN: 0045-7825

A machine learning approach to accelerate convergence of the nonlinear solver in multiphase flow problems is presented here. The approach dynamically controls an acceleration method based on numerical relaxation. It is demonstrated in a Picard iterative solver but is applicable to other types of nonlinear solvers. The aim of the machine learning acceleration is to reduce the computational cost of the nonlinear solver by adjusting to the complexity/physics of the system. Using dimensionless parameters to train and control the machine learning enables the use of a simple two-dimensional layered reservoir for training, while also exploring a wide range of the parameter space. Hence, the training process is simplified and it does not need to be rerun when the machine learning acceleration is applied to other reservoir models. We show that the method can significantly reduce the number of nonlinear iterations without compromising the simulation results, including models that are considerably more complex than the training case.

Journal article

Obeysekara A, Salinas P, Heaney CE, Kahouadji L, Via-Estrem L, Xiang J, Srinil N, Nicolle A, Matar OK, Pain CCet al., 2021, Prediction of multiphase flows with sharp interfaces using anisotropic mesh optimisation, Advances in Engineering Software, Vol: 160, Pages: 1-16, ISSN: 0965-9978

We propose an integrated, parallelised modelling approach to solve complex multiphase flow problems with sharp interfaces. This approach is based on a finite-element, double control-volume methodology, and employs highly-anisotropic mesh optimisation within a framework of high-order numerical methods and algorithms, which include adaptive time-stepping, metric advection, flux limiting, compressive advection of interfaces, multi-grid solvers and preconditioners. Each method is integral to increasing the fidelity of representing the underlying physics while maximising computational efficiency, and, only in combination, do these methods result in the accurate, reliable, and efficient simulation of complex multiphase flows and associated regime transitions. These methods are applied simultaneously for the first time in this paper, although some of the individual methods have been presented previously. We validate our numerical predictions against standard benchmark results from the literature and demonstrate capabilities of our modelling framework through the simulation of laminar and turbulent two-phase pipe flows. These complex interfacial flows involve the creation of bubbles and slugs, which involve multi-scale physics and arise due to a delicate interplay amongst inertia, viscous, gravitational, and capillary forces. We also comment on the potential use of our integrated approach to simulate large, industrial-scale multiphase pipe flow problems that feature complex topological transitions.

Journal article

Titus Z, Heaney C, Jacquemyn C, Salinas P, Jackson MD, Pain Cet al., 2021, Conditioning surface-based geological models to well data using artificial neural networks, Computational Geosciences: modeling, simulation and data analysis, Vol: 26, Pages: 779-802, ISSN: 1420-0597

Surface-based modelling provides a computationally efficient approach for generating geometrically realistic representations of heterogeneity in reservoir models. However, conditioning Surface-Based Geological Models (SBGMs) to well data can be challenging because it is an ill-posed inverse problem with spatially distributed parameters. To aid fast and efficient conditioning, we use here SBGMs that model geometries using parametric, grid-free surfaces that require few parameters to represent even realistic geological architectures. A neural network is trained to learn the underlying process of generating SBGMs by learning the relationship between the parametrized SBGM inputs and the resulting facies identified at well locations. To condition the SBGM to these observed data, inverse modelling of the SBGM inputs is achieved by replacing the forward model with the pre-trained neural network and optimizing the network inputs using the back-propagation technique applied in training the neural network. An analysis of the uncertainties associated with the conditioned realisations demonstrates the applicability of the approach for evaluating spatial variations in geological heterogeneity away from control data in reservoir modelling. This approach for generating geologically plausible models that are calibrated with observed well data could also be extended to other geological modelling techniques such as object- and process-based modelling.

Journal article

Phillips TRF, Heaney CE, Smith PN, Pain CCet al., 2021, An autoencoder‐based reduced‐order model for eigenvalue problems with application to neutron diffusion, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol: 122, Pages: 3780-3811, ISSN: 0029-5981

Using an autoencoder for dimensionality reduction, this article presents a novel projection‐based reduced‐order model for eigenvalue problems. Reduced‐order modeling relies on finding suitable basis functions which define a low‐dimensional space in which a high‐dimensional system is approximated. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and singular value decomposition (SVD) are often used for this purpose and yield an optimal linear subspace. Autoencoders provide a nonlinear alternative to POD/SVD, that may capture, more efficiently, features or patterns in the high‐fidelity model results. Reduced‐order models based on an autoencoder and a novel hybrid SVD‐autoencoder are developed. These methods are compared with the standard POD‐Galerkin approach and are applied to two test cases taken from the field of nuclear reactor physics.

Journal article

Salinas P, Regnier G, Jacquemyn C, Pain CC, Jackson MDet al., 2021, Dynamic mesh optimisation for geothermal reservoir modelling, Geothermics, Vol: 94, Pages: 1-13, ISSN: 0375-6505

Modelling geothermal reservoirs is challenging due to the large domain and wide range of length- and time-scales of interest. Attempting to represent all scales using a fixed computational mesh can be very computationally expensive. Application of dynamic mesh optimisation in other fields of computational fluid dynamics has revolutionised the accuracy and cost of numerical simulations. Here we present a new approach for modelling geothermal reservoirs based on unstructured meshes with dynamic mesh optimisation. The resolution of the mesh varies during a simulation, to minimize an error metric for solution fields of interest such as temperature and pressure. Efficient application of dynamic mesh optimisation in complex subsurface reservoirs requires a new approach to represent geologic heterogeneity and we use parametric spline surfaces to represent key geological features such as faults and lithology boundaries. The resulting 3D surface-based models are mesh free; a mesh is created only when required for numerical computations. Dynamic mesh optimisation preserves the surfaces and hence geologic heterogeneity. The governing equations are discretised using a double control volume finite element method that ensures heat and mass are conserved and provides robust solutions on distorted meshes. We apply the new method to a series of test cases that model sedimentary geothermal reservoirs. We demonstrate that dynamic mesh optimisation yields significant performance gains, reducing run times by up to 8 times whilst capturing flow and heat transport with the same accuracy as fixed meshes.

Journal article

Wu P, Gong S, Pan K, Qiu F, Feng W, Pain Cet al., 2021, Reduced order model using convolutional auto-encoder with self-attention, PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, Vol: 33, ISSN: 1070-6631

Journal article

Cheng M, Fang F, Navon IM, Pain CCet al., 2021, A real-time flow forecasting with deep convolutional generative adversarial network: Application to flooding event in Denmark, PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, Vol: 33, ISSN: 1070-6631

Journal article

Zheng J, Wu X, Fang F, Li J, Wang Z, Xiao H, Zhu J, Pain C, Linden P, Xiang Bet al., 2021, Numerical study of COVID-19 spatial-temporal spreading in London, PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, Vol: 33, ISSN: 1070-6631

Journal article

Tajnafoi G, Arcucci R, Mottet L, Vouriot C, Molina-Solana M, Pain C, Guo Y-Ket al., 2021, Variational Gaussian process for optimal sensor placement, Applications of Mathematics, Vol: 66, Pages: 287-317, ISSN: 0373-6725

Sensor placement is an optimisation problem that has recently gained great relevance. In order to achieve accurate online updates of a predictive model, sensors are used to provide observations. When sensor location is optimally selected, the predictive model can greatly reduce its internal errors. A greedy-selection algorithm is used for locating these optimal spatial locations from a numerical embedded space. A novel architecture for solving this big data problem is proposed, relying on a variational Gaussian process. The generalisation of the model is further improved via the preconditioning of its inputs: Masked Autoregressive Flows are implemented to learn nonlinear, invertible transformations of the conditionally modelled spatial features. Finally, a global optimisation strategy extending the Mutual Information-based optimisation and fine-tuning of the selected optimal location is proposed. The methodology is parallelised to speed up the computational time, making these tools very fast despite the high complexity associated with both spatial modelling and placement tasks. The model is applied to a real three-dimensional test case considering a room within the Clarence Centre building located in Elephant and Castle, London, UK.

Journal article

Lyu Z, Lei Q, Yang L, Heaney C, Song X, Salinas P, Jackson M, Li G, Pain Cet al., 2021, A novel approach to optimising well trajectory in heterogeneous reservoirs based on the fast-marching method, Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, Vol: 88, Pages: 1-12, ISSN: 1875-5100

To achieve efficient recovery of subsurface energy resources, a suitable trajectory needs to be identified for the production well. In this study, a new approach is presented for automated identification of optimum well trajectories in heterogeneous oil/gas reservoirs. The optimisation procedures are as follows. First, a productivity potential map is generated based on the site characterisation data of a reservoir (when available). Second, based on the fast-marching method, well paths are generated from a number of entrance positions to a number of exit points at opposite sides of the reservoir. The well trajectory is also locally constrained by a prescribed maximum curvature to ensure that the well trajectory is drillable. Finally, the optimum well trajectory is selected from all the candidate paths based on the calculation of a benefit-to-cost ratio. If required, a straight directional well path, may also be derived through a linear approximation to the optimised non-linear trajectory by least squares analysis. Model performance has been demonstrated in both 2D and 3D. In the 2D example, the benefit-to-cost ratio of the optimised well is much higher than that of a straight well; in the 3D example, laterals of various curvatures are generated. The applicability of the method is tested by exploring different reservoir heterogeneities and curvature constraints. This approach can be applied to determine the entrance/exit positions and the well path for subsurface energy system development, which is useful for field applications.

Journal article

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