A TRIANGLE BASED MIXED FINITE ELEMENT-FINITE VOLUME TECHNIQUE FOR MODELING 2-PHASE FLOW THROUGH POROUS-MEDIA

Triangle based discretization techniques offer great advantages relative to standard finite difference methods for the modeling of flow through geometrically complex geological features. The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a triangle based method for the modeling of two phase flow through porous formations. The formulation includes the effects of gravity, compressibility, and capillary pressure. The technique entails a triangle based mixed finite element method for solution of the variable coefficient, parabolic pressure equation, and a second order TVD-type (total variation diminishing) finite volume scheme for solution of the essentially hyperbolic saturation equation. The method is applied to a variety of example problems and is shown to perform very well on problems involving geometric complexity coupled with heterogeneous, generally anisotropic permeability descriptions. © 1993 Academic Press, Inc.