Discretizing two-dimensional complex fractured fields for incompressible two-phase flow

A method is introduced to discretize irregular and complex two-dimensional fractured media. The geometry of the fractured media is first analysed by searching and treating the complex configurations. Based on that, the method generated a good mesh quality and allows for including finer grids. An incompressible two-phase flow problem is solved to compare the developed method and a public method based on the approximation of a 1D fracture by the edges of a 2D finite element grid of the porous media. The comparison showed that the developed method (i) represents better the fractured domain by maintaining the geometric integrity of input surfaces and geologic data, (ii) provides, for sample and complex fractured domains, excellent and more accurate results, and (iii) is much less sensitive to the grid sizes. Furthermore, the method has to be more efficient than the other methods for transport problems and has to provide better predictable results; this is mainly based on point (ii) and because the method produces optimal triangular grids. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Original source : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2Ffld.2197...