A Hybrid Approach for Automated Identification of the Two-Phase Wellbore Flow Model

It is demonstrated that the general representation of a dynamic multiphase wellbore flow model may be identified from the available physical measurements. The proposed approach is based on the techniques of numerical optimization and also requires the availability of solvers for the general type of partial differential equations describing two-phase gas–oil flow. A solution is obtained both for the case of the homogeneous no-slip model and the drift-flux model with velocity slip. The feasibility of the proposed approach for system identification and parameter estimation has been demonstrated using simulated flow data. Two distinct scenarios have been considered: firstly, when the well is fully instrumented with multiple pressure sensors and a multiphase flow meter, and secondly, when only a single downhole pressure gauge is available.