About Sensor

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A limited version of Sensor is offered free of charge for non-commercial use to students and to non-profit research organizations, and to others for a 30-day evaluation.  A university or corporate email address is required in registration.  Other licensing options for Sensor are available on request.

Programs included in the Sensor6k reservoir simulation package:

 
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Sensor6k, a version of Sensor restricted to problems having up to 6000 active grid blocks.  Larger problems can be simulated up to 90 days of field time or 100 time steps. 

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SensorPlot, an interface program for reading Sensor result files (fort.61) and preparing plot data.  You can define plots, compare multiple simulation runs, add observed data, make unit conversions, and write batch files to display results with Plot2Excel.

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Plot2Excel, an Excel spreadsheet enhanced with Visual Basic for Applications to facilitate creating report quality X-Y plots from large formatted data sets.  It runs with MS Excel.

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SensorMap, a tool to create 2D contour maps on aerial or vertical slices of a structured reservoir grid.  Maps can display a variety of grid properties of Sensor input or calculated results. 

The software runs in all MS Windows environments.

Sensor is executed in batch mode by command-line, either manually, or within your or third party workflows or interfaces.  If you are interested in an integrated pre- and post-processing package for Sensor including a Windows interface with capabilities for gridding and upscaling, data entry, and job submission with plotting and 3D mapping (Jewel Suite Dynamic Pre & Post processing), or in the entire integrated static and dynamic seismic-to-simulation workflow (Jewel Suite Total Workflow), or in software to assist in Eclipse-to-Sensor conversion, you can request a trial version of Jewel SuiteTM, or email Bob Rundle of JOA Oil and Gas BV.

For information on assisted evaluations, please email Brian Coats.

 

1.  Register to request user name and password

2.  Install Sensor6k

Following Installation, see Start/Programs/Sensor for Sensor documentation.

 

About Datasets

Table 3 of the Sensor Manual lists and briefly describes the Sensor datasets.  The downloadable datasets include an output file (extensions ".out")  for each data file (".dat"), a number of SensorPlot data files (".sp") to illustrate X-Y plotting with Plot2Excel, and an "spe9.sm" SensorMap data file to illustrate contour maps.  The example data files spe9, spe10_case2, test1, test7, and test14 are larger than 6,000 blocks but will run to completion.

The data files primarily serve to illustrate keyword input and certain features.  In some cases, you can modify the data files and use them as templates.

The cpu time printed at the end of each output file was obtained while running Sensor6k on Machine 1 of our Benchmarks page, a 2004-vintage Dell Precision 470 workstation with a 2.8 GHz Intel Xeon processor (Nocona, 1MB L2, 800 MHz FSB) running Windows XP with 2 GB RAM. Timing comparisons indicate Sensor's numerical efficiency (models should be rerun on the same machine for comparison).  In particular, the reader is encouraged to compare cpu times and results for problems test2, test3, test4, spe9 and spe10 with results from other models.  See if other models can converge the single, 900-day step Sensor takes on spe2a.dat to run the second SPE comparative solution problem.  See if other models can reproduce Sensor's near exact agreement between compositional and black oil results for depletion of the undersaturated hydrocarbon column, initially grading from a gas to an oil through the critical point, in problem test4.  Look at the order of magnitude and greater speedups for compositional benchmark problems spe3 and spe5, which persist for larger and more complicated cases.

If you want to see what contributes to Sensor's performance, then examine convergence by comparing the number of Newton iterations per run.  Examine stability in rates and the total number of timesteps in Impes runs with stable step control.  Look at  linear solver iterations and solver cpu time per Newton iteration.  Also compare non-solver cpu time per Newton iteration.  We do not report flash cpu time separately - this is included in 'UPDATE'.  But, for compositional cases, compare our update cpu time with their update (or even their flash alone).  It is these factors combined that primarily determine performance.  If you take the time to make these comparisons, you will see that no other model even comes close to Sensor's performance.  For the very small cases, cpu timing breakdowns of zero are below precision of output and provide no useful information.

How to Run Sensor from Command Line

To run Sensor manually from a DOS command prompt window, or to run from a script or another application, go (cd) to a directory containing your input data file.  Execute the command:
        sensor  datafile  outputfile
where "datafile" is the name of the input data file and "outputfile" is any name desired for the printed output file.  Binary output files containing all results (fort.*) are also created for plotting and mapping purposes or for input to other programs.  The formats of these files are given in the documentation.  Our examples use the file type conventions .dat for main Sensor data files (.inc for include files) and .out for the printed Sensor output files.  Use the text editor (Notepad or Wordpad can be used) or interface of your choice to view or modify or create data and printed output files.

Making Simultaneous and Sequential Runs

Simple batch files and directory structure are provided in the Run Set Folder (click on Start/Programs/Sensor/Run Set/Main Folder to view) for making up to 8 simultaneous sets of any number of sequential runs on a single node.  They can easily be extended to as many simultaneous sets as desired.  Sensor node-locked licenses do not restrict the number of simultaneous runs.  You can choose the number of simultaneous sets to run in order to optimize the overall productivity of your system.  The optimal number (giving maximum numbers of runs per hour) is generally equal to the number of cores or single-core processors but may be limited by available memory.

The name of the batch file that runs Set n is runsetn.bat.  It is executed by clicking on Start/Programs/Sensor/Run Set/n.  It can also be executed from Windows Explorer (by double-clicking) or by command line (enter name).  Set n is executed in work directory (folder) runsetn.  Set n results for all defined cases are saved in directory setnresults.  On multiple executions of the same Run Set, previous results written to the setnresults folders are overwritten.  On completion of Set n runs, (as we have written the batch files) folder runsetn will contain no files.  You may need to save more results to the setnresults folders than we have moved in the batch files, such as any restart files (we have moved only the output file and the binary map and plot files).  The setnresults folders will contain 2 additional files containing summary information for all runs made in the set, sensor.stat and sensorcpu.stat.  These files are mainly used in testing.

The batch files runsetn.bat are pre-set to run some of the provided example cases.  Set 1 will run the first 3 SPE Comparative Solution Project problems.  At the end of the batch files, we have elected to open one of the case output files in Notepad, except for Set 2 (runs cases spe2a, spe5, spe7_1a, and spe9) which opens the set2results folder instead (the command ‘opensetnresults’ or ‘opensetnresults.bat’ opens the setnresults folder, where n = 1 to 8).  Customize as desired.  To run your cases, edit runsetn.bat (click on Start/Programs/Sensor/Run Set, right click on n (=1,2,…8) and select Edit) and change the specifications of our example data and output files to specifications of your data and output files.    Add or remove as many cases as desired.

You can change the Run Set numbers in the Run Set menu, n = 1 to 8, to the names of your studies or cases or whatever your wish by right clicking on n and selecting Rename, but you should retain the original set number in the name, i.e. rename Set n from n to name(n), to preserve the batch file and directory numbering association.  Or, you can right click on the set number n and drag it to your Desktop, release, and then right click on the Desktop shortcut to rename it from n to name(n).    Then, simply double clicking on the Desktop icon(s) displaying your Run Set name(s) will run your cases.  Do not change the names of the batch files or the directories in the Run Set Folder.

The directory ‘data’ is provided only for example and need not be used.

Further Instructions

See the Sensor Manual (Preface and Executing Sensor sections) for further instructions on running the simulator and viewing the output file.  See the SensorPlot Manual for instruction on running SensorPlot.exe to generate input for X-Y plots and create them with Plot2Excel.  See the SensorMap Manual for creating 2D contour maps of Sensor results and grid model.

Program Version

The Sensor6k executable will be updated from time to time.  The version is identified by the date which appears at the top of the output file.  The current version is Oct. 10, 2009.

© 2000 - 2010 Coats Engineering, Inc.