IMPROVED FLUID PROPERTY PREDICTORS FOR RESERVOIR COMPOSITIONAL SIMULATION (INTERACTION COEFFICIENT, VISCOSITY CORRELATION, CRITICAL PROPERTIES, EQUATION OF STATE, ACENTRIC FACTOR)

Binary interaction parameter k(,ij) was correlated as functions of molecular weight and boiling point for hydrocarbon, non-hydrocarbon, and mixed binaries. The k(,ij)-functions yield the value of zero for k(,ij) when i = j are extended to binaries involving heptanes-plus pseudo-component. The functions were tested against 1399 data points in 246 systems and an Average Absolute Percent Deviation (AAPD) of 1.1% resulted. These functions provide new techniques for establishing the k(,ij)-coefficient in the equation-of-state mixing rules without resorting to arbitrary values, as is commonly done.;A van der Waals model based solely upon pure component critical data is developed for viscosity. An analysis of the prediction results from 5728 published experimental data points of dilute to dense gas viscosities of fourteen components resulted in an AAPD of 4.7%. Mixing rules are proposed and comparisons of 9414 experimental data points of several binary, a ternary, and multicomponent systems resulted in an AAPD of 2.5%. The extension of these rules to reservoir oils viscosity prediction was generally within (+OR-)6% of the experimental values.;A generalized cubic equation of state (EOS) is developed as functions of coefficients (alpha) and (beta) in the attractive pressure term and the limiting critical volume b/V(,c). From this generalized model, all the patterns of the previously published cubic equations of state are unfolded. The versatility of this model was demonstrated by constructing two- and four- parameters EOS'.;Extension of LLS equations to mixtures was demonstrated by using the established form of mixing rules for the attractive and repulsive terms while new mixing rules were proposed for the (alpha)(,m) and(beta)(,m) of the LLSV EOS. These mixing rules were tested with binary VLE data and was found to be acceptable in general.;Critical pressures, critical temperatures, and acentric factor correlations of heavy fractions developed from petroleum fractions and pure components are based on a new characterization scheme which uses molecular weight, boiling point, specific gravity, and refractive index. The use of this non-iterative scheme for correlating paraffinic, naphthenic, and aromatic categories of hydrocarbons has never before been achieved. An AAPD of 2% resulted from the prediction of 1254 values of critical properties and acentric factor.