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A Two-Phase Flow Simulation of Discrete-Fractured Media using Mimetic Finite Difference Method

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Zhaoqin Huang ,
Xia Yan  and
Jun Yao
Zhaoqin Huang*
Affiliation:
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, P.R. China
Xia Yan*
Affiliation:
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, P.R. China
Jun Yao*
Affiliation:
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, P.R. China
*
Email:huangzhqin@upc.edu.cn
Email:jsyanxia@163.com
Corresponding author.Email:RCOGFRUPC@126.com
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Abstract

Various conceptual models exist for numerical simulation of fluid flow in fractured porous media, such as dual-porosity model and equivalent continuum model. As a promising model, the discrete-fracture model has been received more attention in the past decade. It can be used both as a stand-alone tool as well as for the evaluation of effective parameters for the continuum models. Various numerical methods have been applied to the discrete-fracture model, including control volume finite difference, Galerkin and mixed finite element methods. All these methods have inherent limitations in accuracy and applicabilities. In this work, we developed a new numerical scheme for the discrete-fracture model by using mimetic finite difference method. The proposed numerical model is applicable in arbitrary unstructured gridcells with full-tensor permeabilities. The matrix-fracture and fracture-fracture fluxes are calculated based on powerful features of the mimetic finite difference method, while the upstream finite volume scheme is used for the approximation of the saturation equation. Several numerical tests in 2D and 3D are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed numerical model.

Keywords

76S0565N0865N5535J25Fractured porous mediadiscrete-fracture modeltwo-phase flowmimetic finite dif-ference method
Type
Research Article
Information
Communications in Computational Physics , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 799 - 816
Copyright
Copyright © Global Science Press Limited 2014

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