Multiscale methods for Stokes flow in heterogeneous media

Fluid flow in porous media is a multiscale process where the effective dynamics, which is often the goal of a computation, depends strongly on the porous micro structure. Resolving the micro structure in the whole porous medium can, however, be prohibitive. Novel numerical methods that efficiently approximate the effective flow but resolve only a carefully selected reduced portion of the porous structure are of great interest. In this thesis we propose new numerical multiscale methods for Stokes flow in two- and three-scale porous media. First, we propose the Darcy--Stokes finite element heterogeneous multiscale method (DS-FE-HMM). The method is based on solving the Darcy equation on a macroscopic mesh using the finite element method with numerical quadrature, where the unknown permeability is recovered from micro finite element solutions of Stokes problems that are defined in sampling domains centered at macroscopic quadrature points. An adaptive scheme based on a posteriori error analysis is proposed, where micro-macro mesh refinement is driven by residual-based indicators that quantify both the micro and macro errors. Second, to address the increasing cost of solving the micro problems as the macroscopic mesh is refined, we combine the DS-FE-HMM with reduced basis (RB) method and propose a new multiscale method called the RB-DS-FE-HMM. Efficiency and accuracy of the method relies on a parametrization of the micro geometries and on the Petrov-Galerkin RB formulation that provides a stable and fast evaluation of the effective permeability. A residual-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme is proposed for the macroscopic problem. To achieve a conservative approximation we also combine and analyze a coupling of the RB method with a different macroscopic scheme based on the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DG-FEM). Finally, we consider a three-scale porous media model with macro, meso, and micro scale. At the intermediate meso scale the medium is composed of fluid and porous parts and the fluid flow is modeled with the Stokes-Brinkman equation. A three-scale numerical method is derived and an efficient algorithm based on the RB method and empirical interpolation method on the micro and meso scale is proposed

An adaptive finite element heterogeneous multiscale method for Stokes flow in porous media

A finite element heterogeneous multiscale method is proposed for solving the Stokes problem in porous media. The method is based on the coupling of an effective Darcy equation on a macroscopic mesh with unknown permeabilities recovered from micro finite element calculations for Stokes problems on sampling domains centered at quadrature points in each macro element. The numerical method accounts for nonperiodic microscopic geometry that can be obtained from a smooth deformation of a reference pore sampling domain. The computational work is nevertheless independent of the small size of the pore structure. A priori error estimates reveal that the overall accuracy of the numerical scheme is limited by the regularity of the solutions of the Stokes microproblems. This regularity is low for a typical situation of nonconvex microscopic pore geometries. We therefore propose an adaptive scheme with micro- macro mesh refinement driven by residual-based indicators that quantify both the macro- and microerrors. A posteriori error analysis is derived for the new method. Two- and three-dimensional numerical experiments confirm the robustness and the accuracy of the adaptive method

Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Methods for problems in perforated heterogeneous domains

Complex processes in perforated domains occur in many real-world applications. These problems are typically characterized by physical processes in domains with multiple scales (see Figure 1 for the illustration of a perforated domain). Moreover, these problems are intrinsically multiscale and their discretizations can yield very large linear or nonlinear systems. In this paper, we investigate multiscale approaches that attempt to solve such problems on a coarse grid by constructing multiscale basis functions in each coarse grid, where the coarse grid can contain many perforations. In particular, we are interested in cases when there is no scale separation and the perforations can have different sizes. In this regard, we mention some earlier pioneering works [14, 18, 17], where the authors develop multiscale finite element methods. In our paper, we follow Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) and develop a multiscale procedure where we identify multiscale basis functions in each coarse block using snapshot space and local spectral problems. We show that with a few basis functions in each coarse block, one can accurately approximate the solution, where each coarse block can contain many small inclusions. We apply our general concept to (1) Laplace equation in perforated domain; (2) elasticity equation in perforated domain; and (3) Stokes equations in perforated domain. Numerical results are presented for these problems using two types of heterogeneous perforated domains. The analysis of the proposed methods will be presented elsewhere

Adaptive multiscale model reduction with Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Methods

In this paper, we discuss a general multiscale model reduction framework based on multiscale finite element methods. We give a brief overview of related multiscale methods. Due to page limitations, the overview focuses on a few related methods and is not intended to be comprehensive. We present a general adaptive multiscale model reduction framework, the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method. Besides the method's basic outline, we discuss some important ingredients needed for the method's success. We also discuss several applications. The proposed method allows performing local model reduction in the presence of high contrast and no scale separation

A Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method for the Brinkman Equation

In this paper we consider the numerical upscaling of the Brinkman equation in the presence of high-contrast permeability fields. We develop and analyze a robust and efficient Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) for the Brinkman model. In the fine grid, we use mixed finite element method with the velocity and pressure being continuous piecewise quadratic and piecewise constant finite element spaces, respectively. Using the GMsFEM framework we construct suitable coarse-scale spaces for the velocity and pressure that yield a robust mixed GMsFEM. We develop a novel approach to construct a coarse approximation for the velocity snapshot space and a robust small offline space for the velocity space. The stability of the mixed GMsFEM and a priori error estimates are derived. A variety of two-dimensional numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.Comment: 22 page

Mini-Workshop: Numerical Upscaling for Flow Problems: Theory and Applications

The objective of this workshop was to bring together researchers working in multiscale simulations with emphasis on multigrid methods and multiscale finite element methods, aiming at chieving of better understanding and synergy between these methods. The goal of multiscale finite element methods, as upscaling methods, is to compute coarse scale solutions of the underlying equations as accurately as possible. On the other hand, multigrid methods attempt to solve fine-scale equations rapidly using a hierarchy of coarse spaces. Multigrid methods need “good” coarse scale spaces for their efficiency. The discussions of this workshop partly focused on approximation properties of coarse scale spaces and multigrid convergence. Some other presentations were on upscaling, domain decomposition methods and nonlinear multiscale methods. Some researchers discussed applications of these methods to reservoir simulations, as well as to simulations of filtration, insulating materials, and turbulence

On adaptive BDDC for the flow in heterogeneous porous media

We study a method based on Balancing Domain Decomposition by Constraints (BDDC) for a numerical solution of a single-phase flow in heterogenous porous media. The method solves for both flux and pressure variables. The fluxes are resolved in three steps: the coarse solve is followed by subdomain solves and last we look for a divergence-free flux correction and pressures using conjugate gradients with the BDDC preconditioner. Our main contribution is an application of the adaptive algorithm for selection of flux constraints. Performance of the method is illustrated on the benchmark problem from the 10th SPE Comparative Solution Project (SPE 10). Numerical experiments in both 2D and 3D demonstrate that the first two steps of the method exhibit some numerical upscaling properties, and the adaptive preconditioner in the last step allows a significant decrease in number of iterations of conjugate gradients at a small additional cost.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure