Author(s)

Olugbenga Adebanjo Falode^*, Victor Sunday Chukwunagolu

Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

The salient significance of the solution of radial diffusivity equation to well testing analysis done in oil and gas industry cannot be over-emphasized. Varieties of solutions have been proposed to the radial diffusivity equation, of which the Van Everdingen-Hurst constant terminal rate solution is the most widely accepted and the others are approximate solution having their respective limitations. The main objective of this project, being its first application to oil and gas industry, is to use a new mathematical technique, the homotopy analysis method (HAM) to solve the radial diffusivity equation for slightly compressible fluid. In Using HAM, the Boltzmann transformation method was used to transform the radial PDE to ODE, then a homotopy series was then constructed for the new equation with the linear boundary condition from the original radial diffusivity equation of slightly compressible fluid and the final equation then solved using computation software Maple. The result gotten reveals that the homotopy analysis method gives good results compared to the Van Everdingen and Hurst Solution (Exact solution) and thus proves to be very effective, simple, and accurate when compared to other form of solutions. Hence from the results gotten, Homotopy Analysis Method can therefore be applied in solving other non-linear equations in the petroleum engineering field since it is simple and accurate.

Homotopy Analysis Method, Boltzmann Transformation, Exact Solution, Diffusivity Equation

Falode, O. and Chukwunagolu, V. (2016) Homotopy Analysis Solution to Radial Diffusivity Equation of Slightly Compressible Fluid. Applied Mathematics, 7, 993-1004. doi: 10.4236/am.2016.79087.