An adaptive control volume finite element method for simulation of multi-scale flow in heterogeneous porous media
Abstract
Numerical simulation of multiphase flow in porous media is of importance in a wide range of applications in science and engineering. We present a novel control volume finite element method (CVFEM) to solve for multi-scale flow in heterogeneous geological formations. It employs a node centred control volume approach to discretize the saturation equation, while a control volume finite element method is applied for the pressure equation. We embed the discrete continuity equation into the pressure equation and assure that the continuity is exactly enforced. Anisotropic mesh adaptivity is used to accurately model the fine grained features of multiphase flow. The adaptive algorithm uses a metric tensor field based on solution error estimates to locally control the size and shape of elements in the metric. Moreover, it uses metric advection between adaptive meshes in order to predict the future required density of mesh thereby reducing numerical dispersion at the saturation front. The scheme is capable of capturing multi-scale heterogeneity such as those in fractured porous media through the use of several constraints on the element size in different regions of porous media. We show the application of our method for simulation of flow in some challenging benchmark problems. For flow in fractured reservoirs, the scheme adapts the mesh as the flow penetrates through the fracture and the matrix. The constraints for the element size within the fracture are smaller by several orders of magnitude than the generated mesh within the matrix. We show that the scheme captures the key multi-scale features of flow while preserving the geometry. We demonstrate that mesh adaptation can be used to accurately simulate flow in heterogeneous porous media at low computational cost.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.H14A..05M
- Keywords:
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- 1832 HYDROLOGY Groundwater transport;
- 1829 HYDROLOGY Groundwater hydrology