Simulator Development and Simulation Studies of Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Process

A 2-D numerical simulator for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process is made using the model suggested by Coats et al. in MATLAB. Despite the Coats model, this extended model considers the effects of capillary and gravity in the energy equation. Also a variable thermal conductivity is used in the simulator to improve the precision of the results. At first, a sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the process and know it better. Then, the pre-heating process is investigated using the simulator. The results show that pre-heating is necessary for a quick recovery from the reservoir. They also show that there exists an optimum duration for the preheating of each reservoir.