Advanced Visualization of Flow and Geomechanics Simulation Data

ABSTRACT: Despite recent advancements in coupled flow and geomechanics simulation, the visualization of coupled flow and geomechanics simulation results remains limited to 2D screen presentations of 3D simulation results. So, engineers typically take multiple cross-sections to obtain insights into the changes in relevant variables in the simulation domain. To address this limitation, the petroleum industry has considered expensive immersive 3D visualization rooms that allow engineers and geoscientists to virtually "walk through" reservoir models in collaborative environments. However, recent advances in mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) have reduced costs by three orders of magnitude, making immersive visualization more accessible. This work presents a framework for visualizing coupled flow and geomechanics simulation results on affordable VR headsets. The reservoir is represented as a graph consisting of nodes and edges, enabling users to walk through and see through the entire simulation domain. Scalar, vector, and 2D matrix quantities at cell centroids or vertices are represented with glyphs that correspond to the order of their tensors.