Modelling of multi-lateral well geometries for geothermal applications

Well inflow modelling in different numerical simulation approaches are compared for a multi-lateral well. Specifically radial wells will be investigated, which can be created using Radial Jet Drilling (RJD). In this technique, powerful hydraulic jets are used to create small diameter laterals (25-50 mm) of limited length (up to 100 m) from a well.

The laterals, also called radials, leave the backbone at a 90° angle. In this study we compare three numerical simulators and a semi-analytical tool for calculating inflow of a radial well. The numerical simulators are FE approaches (CSMP and GOLEM) and an FV approach with explicit well model (Eclipse®/span).

A series of increasingly complex well configurations is simulated, including one with inflow from a fault. Although all simulators generally are reasonably close in terms of the total well flow (deviations < 4 % for the homogeneous cases), the distribution of the flow over the different parts of the well can vary significantly.

Also, the FE approaches are more sensitive to grid size when the flow is dominated by radial flow to the well since they do not include a dedicated well model. In the FE approaches, lower dimensional elements (1-D for the well and 2-D for the faults) were superimposed into a 3-D space. In case the flow is dominated by fracture flow, the results from the FV approach in Eclipse deviates from the FE methods.