Application of Fuzzy c-means algorithm for the estimation of Asphaltene precipitation

ABSTRACT

One of problematic topics in petroleum engineering is Asphaltene precipitation issue which causes problems such as tubing plugging and formation damage due to temperature, pressure and composition changes so the notability of this issue increases. In the present investigation a novel Fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm was developed to predict precipitated asphaltene as function of dilution ratio, carbon number of precipitants and temperature for solving the problem. The results showed that this novel approach has great ability to predict precipitated asphaltene in terms of aforementioned parameters. The coefficients of determination (R²) for training and testing steps are calculated as 0.9828 and 0.9387 respectively. This great degree of accuracy expresses that the predicting algorithm has potential to be utilized as software for prediction of asphaltene behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• asphaltene
• FCM algorithm
• precipitation
• predicting model
• deposition