CFD aerodynamicist drives industry-leading technology
A leading technology specialist who has a track record in Formula 1 and aircraft industry is successfully applying his expertise to the oil and gas industry after being appointed by global energy services company Senergy.
Lesmana Djayapertapa specialises in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) which is used to study the dynamics of elements that flow such as water, oil and gas in associated environments.
CFD, which has been used in industries such as aviation, car manufacturing and wind turbine design for decades, wasn’t introduced to the oil and gas industry for reservoir inflow modelling until just over two years ago when Senergy launched its own proprietary and game-changing Wellscope™ technology.
Wellscope was a market first in that, by using CFD, it addresses the design of wells from an entirely new perspective and, as such, has started to revolutionise the industry’s approach to near wellbore inflow performance and ultimately increase productivity and cost-effectiveness.
Lesmana’s appointment as senior CFD consultant builds on the success of Wellscope which has already been achieving significant results for clients around the world. It also further strengthens Senergy’s Production Technology and Formation Integrity teams which include specialists in CFD, finite element, production technology and formation damage.
Lesmana said: “CFD is a well-established technology so I was quite surprised to learn that it has only really started to be used in oil and gas for reservoir inflow modelling. If someone tells me that they have a challenge in oil and gas inflow modelling, I would say right away that CFD has the answer because if you look at the maths and physics behind CFD, it’s really incredible.
“Senergy is at the forefront of using CFD in oil and gas, having recognised it as a crucial tool to help determine the flow of oil and gas to maximise exploration and production. I wanted to join Senergy because Wellscope is such a very specialist discipline and there are so many opportunities in oil and gas to apply it.”
Lesmana has already bolstered Senergy’s suite of CFD capabilities by developing a network of high-performance computing and its associated infrastructure which further enhances the tool’s proficiency to provide a faster and more accurate prediction of a well’s performance. In addition, the cells can be recalculated individually or collectively at the touch of a button to provide on-going updates and modelling of a well’s condition. As a result, it is providing more cost and time-effective solutions and, ultimately, leading to increased oil and gas production.
“CFD opens the door to what you can simulate,” said Lesmana. “For example, predicting the water and oil production from a combination of cased and perforated and open hole completion, sand management, the effect of inflow control device, formation damage and so on.
“CFD can also be used to examine potential erosion, where it could occur and when as well as to identify when oil and water are likely to mix together. At Senergy, we are also collaborating with our chemists and geoscientists to further utilise the benefits that CFD brings.”
Originally from Indonesia, Lesmana was awarded a scholarship in aeronautical engineering at Bristol University where, on the advice of a professor, he was then offered the opportunity to study a PhD in CFD – becoming one of the first students at the university to study the subject.
After graduating, Lesmana was offered a job with leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus where he was responsible for developing CFD and implementing it as a design tool for aircraft wings. Lesmana spent more than eight years at Airbus during which he became heavily involved in aircraft aerodynamics, particularly for the A320, the double-decker A380 and A350.
In 2009, Lesmana’s career went from aircraft to racing cars after he was offered a job as a CFD aerodynamicist with Formula One team, Lotus Racing (now Caterham F1 team), to develop a CFD capability from scratch. He was involved in the design of the cars driven by household names Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli during the 2010 season – the first of Lotus’s return to the F1 scene following a gap of several years.
He said: “It was a huge challenge and really intensive because I was given six months to implement the technology which is a lot of responsibility. It was also a complete contrast to working in aerospace which was a much more mature industry in that everything is designed using CFD.
“In Formula One, it’s all about how fast you can make a car go and the pressure to achieve this is high whereas in aerospace, developing CFD is a much slower process because the design cycle is about two to three years.”
Within six months, Lesmana successfully developed a CFD capability which engineers could use on a daily basis to improve a car’s performance. He also went on to further build the technology before deciding to turn his expertise to oil and gas when the F1 team relocated.
“Senergy is a forward-thinking company which is renowned for its innovation and integrated approach which is demonstrated by its Wellscope technology which is based on CFD,” said Lesmana who presented at an advanced technology workshop about CFD for the Society of Petroleum Engineers in Dubai in April.
“Oil and gas is also a much more interesting industry to work in because you can relate the physics more to wells with CFD,” said Lesmana. “It was very obvious to me that if you want oil, gas and water to flow, CFD is pivotal to achieving this. There are a lot of things we can do much better and faster while CFD is also used to help with project economics.”