Model reduction and discretization using hybrid finite volumes for flow in porous media containing faults

Isabelle Faille (1) , Alessio Fumagalli (1) , Jérôme Jaffré (2) , Jean E. Roberts (2)

1 IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
2 SERENA - Simulation for the Environment : Reliable and Efficient Numerical Algorithms

In this paper, we study two different model reduction strategies for solving problems involving single phase flow in a porous medium containing faults or fractures whose location and properties are known. These faults are represented as interfaces of dimension N − 1 immersed in an N dimensional domain. Both approaches can handle various configurations of position and permeability of the faults, and one can handle different fracture permeabilities on the two inner sides of the fracture. For the numerical discretization, we use the hybrid finite volume scheme as it is known to be well suited to simulating subsurface flow. Some results, which may be of use in the implementation of the proposed methods in industrial codes, are demonstrated.

Mots clés: Porous media; Faults; Interface model; Non-matching grids; Finite volumes

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Isabelle Faille, Alessio Fumagalli, Jérôme Jaffré, Jean E. Roberts. Model reduction and discretization using hybrid finite volumes for flow in porous media containing faults. Computational Geosciences, 2016, 20 (2), pp.317-339. ⟨10.1007/s10596-016-9558-3⟩. ⟨hal-01395454⟩