Numerical Sand Box as a Tool for Hydrocarbon Exploration: Applications to the Hides Anticline and the Western Papuan Fold and Thrust belt

Abstract

We present UWGeodynamics, a finite element software which facilitates numerical-mechanical and thermo-mechanical modeling in 2D and 3D at all scales. Whilst this can be for the expert user on a supercomputer, we discuss a simple setup for the desk geologist that simulates sandbox modeling. The advantage of the UWGeodynamics sandbox modeling is that over 300 2D models can be run overnight on a supercomputer (or in the cloud) or 10+ models overnight on a laptop as opposed to one analog model/month. This allows us to fully investigate the range of all inputs/variables overnight and produce a movie for each experiment. These can be compared both visually and statistically to determine not only t..