A force-balanced control volume finite element method for multi-phase porous media flow modelling

作者:Gomes J L M A; Pavlidis D*; Salinas P; Xie Z; Percival J R; Melnikova Y; Pain C C; Jackson M D
来源:International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 2017, 83(5): 431-445.
DOI:10.1002/fld.4275

摘要

A novel method for simulating multi-phase flow in porous media is presented. The approach is based on a control volume finite element mixed formulation and new force-balanced finite element pairs. The novelty of the method lies in (i) permitting both continuous and discontinuous description of pressure and saturation between elements; (ii) the use of arbitrarily high-order polynomial representation for pressure and velocity and (iii) the use of high-order flux-limited methods in space and time to avoid introducing non-physical oscillations while achieving high-order accuracy where and when possible. The model is initially validated for two-phase flow. Results are in good agreement with analytically obtained solutions and experimental results. The potential of this method is demonstrated by simulating flow in a realistic geometry composed of highly permeable meandering channels.

  • 出版日期2017-2-20