Multiscale simulations of porous media flows in flow-based coordinate system

In this paper, we propose a multiscale technique for the simulation of porous media flows in a flow-based coordinate system. A flow-based coordinate system allows us to simplify the scale interaction and derive the upscaled equations for purely hyperbolic transport equations. We discuss the applications of the method to two-phase flows in heterogeneous porous media. For two-phase flow simulations, the use of a flow-based coordinate system requires limited global information, such as the solution of single-phase flow. Numerical results show that one can achieve accurate upscaling results using a flow-based coordinate system

Expanded mixed multiscale finite element methods and their applications for flows in porous media

We develop a family of expanded mixed Multiscale Finite Element Methods (MsFEMs) and their hybridizations for second-order elliptic equations. This formulation expands the standard mixed Multiscale Finite Element formulation in the sense that four unknowns (hybrid formulation) are solved simultaneously: pressure, gradient of pressure, velocity and Lagrange multipliers. We use multiscale basis functions for the both velocity and gradient of pressure. In the expanded mixed MsFEM framework, we consider both cases of separable-scale and non-separable spatial scales. We specifically analyze the methods in three categories: periodic separable scales, $G$- convergence separable scales, and continuum scales. When there is no scale separation, using some global information can improve accuracy for the expanded mixed MsFEMs. We present rigorous convergence analysis for expanded mixed MsFEMs. The analysis includes both conforming and nonconforming expanded mixed MsFEM. Numerical results are presented for various multiscale models and flows in porous media with shales to illustrate the efficiency of the expanded mixed MsFEMs.Comment: 33 page

Non-negative mixed finite element formulations for a tensorial diffusion equation

We consider the tensorial diffusion equation, and address the discrete maximum-minimum principle of mixed finite element formulations. In particular, we address non-negative solutions (which is a special case of the maximum-minimum principle) of mixed finite element formulations. The discrete maximum-minimum principle is the discrete version of the maximum-minimum principle. In this paper we present two non-negative mixed finite element formulations for tensorial diffusion equations based on constrained optimization techniques (in particular, quadratic programming). These proposed mixed formulations produce non-negative numerical solutions on arbitrary meshes for low-order (i.e., linear, bilinear and trilinear) finite elements. The first formulation is based on the Raviart-Thomas spaces, and is obtained by adding a non-negative constraint to the variational statement of the Raviart-Thomas formulation. The second non-negative formulation based on the variational multiscale formulation. For the former formulation we comment on the affect of adding the non-negative constraint on the local mass balance property of the Raviart-Thomas formulation. We also study the performance of the active set strategy for solving the resulting constrained optimization problems. The overall performance of the proposed formulation is illustrated on three canonical test problems.Comment: 40 pages using amsart style file, and 15 figure