The actual petroleum reservoir is always constrained in volume (usually by seal and a cap rock).

But in some practical applications the observation time is too short to see the effects of the reservoir boundaries.

In this case a reservoir flow can be analytically modeled with infinite boundary reservoir:

Linear Flow	Radial Flow
$\begin{array}{l}x \rightarrow \infty\end{array}$	$\begin{array}{l}r \rightarrow \infty\end{array}$

Numerical model always performs calculations with finite boundary.

There are hybrid models which perform numerical calculations in finite volume composite and infinite boundary analytical model outside the composite.

A typical example is 3D flow simulations with infinite aquifer.

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