Fast and Robust Algorithm for Compositional Modeling: Part I—Stability Analysis Testing

Abstract

Summary Given pressure, temperature, and composition of a fluid, one desires to determine whether the single phase state is stable. This problem is, in principle, much simpler than phase-behavior calculations. For certain applications, such as compositional-reservoir modeling, stability testing can be the most important item for efficient phase-behavior calculations. In this paper, we use the tangent-plane-distance (TPD) in the reduced space to perform stability analysis testing. The results reveal that there are major advantages in the reduced space. One interesting feature of the transformation is that the TPD surface becomes smooth and has one minimum. The combination of a single minimum and the surface smoothness contributes to a remarkable robustness in calculations.