The impact of grid cell size and fluid modeling on CO2 plume distribution numerical simulation

These models are developed to evaluate the impact of different fluid modeling approaches and grid configurations on a three-dimensional reservoir model of the Illinois Basin–Decatur Project (IBDP) for CO2 storage applications. The baseline model is a history-matched simulation developed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and is publicly available. Building on this reference model, we generated a set of variant models to systematically investigate the effects of fluid formulation and grid modifications. Specifically, the following cases are considered: Case 1: Evaluation of fluid model selection by comparing CO2STORE and GASSOL formulations using the baseline grid. Case 2: Assessment of the impact of reservoir boundary reduction (sector cropping), combined with fluid model variations. Cases 3 and 4: Investigation of grid coarsening applied to the cropped model, alongside fluid model variations, to analyze the combined effects on simulation performance and plume behavior. These models enable a systematic comparison of how fluid representation and grid resolution influence pressure evolution, plume migration, and CO2 dissolution. The files are provided in compressed format for each case. They must be extracted prior to use in a compatible dynamic reservoir simulator (e.g., tNavigator).