Maximus 7.1 - Physics based Multiphase Flow Simulator

Released: June 2020
Maintained until June 2023

About Maximus

Maximus is a very powerful and versatile compositional and black oil production and flow assurance modelling software, capable of simulating the whole production and transport facilities network, from the reservoir to the early stages of separation, throughout the life of the field. Through the native integration of Multiflash and its field planning modelling capabilities, production and flow assurance engineers and project managers can easily model in details the entire asset and access relevant information for their discipline to optimize decision making and minimize the risks associated with production such as formation of solids (hydrates, waxes, asphaltenes, scales etc.), corrosion/erosion of the facilities and other potential obstacles to the correct operations and optimal field development. Engineers can also easily assess options, perform “what if” analyses and compare operating scenarios and design choices, in order to make the best choice, based on the business objectives previously set, and within the real constraints of the asset.

What's new in Maximus 7.1

After the release of v7.0 which saw a major work of integration and the development of the Petro-SIM hydraulic subflowsheet, the release of 7.1 marks a new crucial step in the extension of Maximus' modelling capabilities and user experience. Main highlighihs for the release include the development of a hydrates inhibition configurator, which together with the hydraulic potential controller and the gas lift optimiser released in previous versions, greatly contributes to the simplification and speed-up of model building and maintenance activities.

Among various enhancements, such as the pipe schedule, pipe objects now allows the calculation of the cooldown time, useful to determine the best approach and minimize the risk associated with shutdowns. In order to extend and enhance Maximus modelling capabilities, version 7.1 includes the integration of the units operations by OneSubsea and various improvements to other units like compressors and pumps.

For flow assurance applications, Maximus 7.1 now supports the asphaltene model and the handling of Multiflash model files with multiple streams. This is crucial to allow a simpler transfer of data across flow and production assurance applications using, for instance, fluids that were characterised with a common set of petroleum fractions. For wax deposition modelling applications, the FloWax object now supports solving at fixed outlet pressure and parallel simulation of wax deposition cases.

Version 7.1 marks the official beginning of the path towards the new generation of production and process simulation aimed at cloud deployment and SAS (software as a service) and online applications with the first release of the Restful API which now allows to load a model, launch simulations and retrieve results through a web interface. Further extensions and consolidation are expected in future releases.

List of changes in Maximus 7.1

  • User experience
    • Hydrates inhibitor controller
    • Compressors and pumps enhancements
    • Pipe schedule
    • Generation of heat & mass tables
    • Enhanced flexibility of dialog boxes and windows
    • Meter object extensions for data reconciliation and data violation
  • PVT extensions
    • Asphaltene model support
    • Support of multi-stream Multiflash files
    • Enabled PR (Peng-Robinson) EoS with Costald liquid density (PR-Petro - SIM)
  • New functionalities
    • Cooldown time calculator
    • Integration of OneSubsea unit operations
  • FloWax improvements
    • Backward solution of wax deposition case at fixed outlet pressure
    • Multi-threading and parallelization of wax deposition cases
  • Architectural
    • Partial support of web API