This paper presents a finite volume discretization of two-phase Darcy flows in discrete fracture networks taking into account the mass exchange between the matrix and the fracture. We consider the asymptotic model for which the fractures are represented as interfaces of codimension one immersed in the matrix domain, leading to the so called hybrid dimensional Darcy flow model. The pressures at the interfaces between the matrix and the fracture network are continuous corresponding to a ratio between the normal permeability of the fracture and the width of the fracture assumed to be large compared with the ratio between the permeability of the matrix and the size of the domain. The discretization is an extension of the Vertex Approximate Gradient (VAG) scheme to the case of hybrid dimensional Darcy flow models. Compared with Control Volume Finite Element (CVFE) approaches, the VAG scheme has the advantage to avoid the mixing of the fracture and matrix rocktypes at the interfaces between the matrix and the fractures, while keeping the low cost of a nodal discretization on unstructured meshes. The convergence of the scheme is proved under the assumption that the relative permeabilities are bounded from below by a strictly positive constant. This assumption is needed in the convergence proof in order to take into account discontinuous capillary pressures in particular at the matrix fracture interfaces. The efficiency of our approach compared with CVFE discretizations is shown on two numerical examples of fracture networks in 2D and 3D.

Flow in fractured porous media occurs in the earth's subsurface, in biological tissues, and in man-made materials. Fractures have a dominating influence on flow processes, and the last decade has seen an extensive development of models and numerical methods that explicitly account for their presence. To support these developments, four benchmark cases for single-phase flow in three-dimensional fractured porous media are presented. The cases are specifically designed to test the methods' capabilities in handling various complexities common to the geometrical structures of fracture networks. Based on an open call for participation, results obtained with 17 numerical methods were collected. This paper presents the underlying mathematical model, an overview of the features of the participating numerical methods, and their performance in solving the benchmark cases.

We investigate the discretization of Darcy flow through fractured porous media on general meshes. We consider a hybrid dimensional model, invoking a complex network of planar fractures. The model accounts for matrix-fracture interactions and fractures acting either as drains or as barriers, i.e. we have to deal with pressure discontinuities at matrixfracture interfaces. The numerical analysis is performed in the general framework of gradient discretizations which is extended to the model under consideration. Two families of schemes namely the Vertex Approximate Gradient scheme (VAG) and the Hybrid Finite Volume scheme (HFV) are detailed and shown to satisfy the gradient scheme framework, which yields, in particular, convergence. Numerical tests confirm the theoretical results.

International audienceIn this work, we extend, to two-phase flow, the single-phase Darcy flow model proposed in [26], [12] in which the (d − 1)-dimensional flow in the fractures is coupled with the d-dimensional flow in the matrix. Three types of so called hybrid-dimensional two-phase Darcy flow models are proposed. They all account for fractures acting either as drains or as barriers, since they allow pressure jumps at the matrix-fracture interfaces. The models also permit to treat gravity dominated flow as well as discontinuous capillary pressure at the material interfaces. The three models differ by their transmission conditions at matrix fracture interfaces: while the first model accounts for the nonlinear two-phase Darcy flux conservations, the second and third ones are based on the linear single phase Darcy flux conservations combined with different approximations of the mobilities. We adapt the Vertex Approximate Gradient (VAG) scheme to this problem, in order to account for anisotropy and heterogeneity aspects as well as for applicability on general meshes. Several test cases are presented to compare our hybrid-dimensional models to the generic equi-dimensional model, in which fractures have the same dimension as the matrix, leading to deep insight about the quality of the proposed reduced models

We consider an immiscible incompressible two-phase flow in a porous medium composed of two different rocks so that the capillary pressure field is discontinuous at the interface between the rocks. This leads us to apply a concept of multi-valued phase pressures and a notion of weak solution for the flow which have been introduced in [Cancès & Pierre, SIAM J. Math. Anal, 44(2):966-992, 2012]. We discretize the problem by means of a numerical algorithm which reduces to a standard finite volume scheme in each rock and prove the convergence of the approximate solution to a weak solution of the two-phase flow problem. The numerical experiments show in particular that this scheme permits to reproduce the oil trapping phenomenon.

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International audienceFully implicit time-space discretizations applied to the two-phase Darcy flow problem lead to the systems of nonlinear equations, which are traditionally solved by some variant of Newton's method. The efficiency of the resulting algorithms heavily depends on the choice of the primary unknowns since Newton's method is not invariant with respect to a nonlinear change of variable. In this regard the role of capillary pressure/saturation relation is paramount because the choice of primary unknowns is restricted by its shape. We propose an elegant mathematical framework for two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media resulting in a family of formulations, which apply to general monotone capillary pressure/saturation relations and handle the saturation jumps at rocktype interfaces. The presented approach is applied to the hybrid dimensional model of two phase water-gas Darcy flow in fractured porous media for which the fractures are modeled as interfaces of co-dimension one. The problem is discretized using an extension of Vertex Approximate Gradient scheme. As for the phase pressure formulation, the discrete model requires only two unknowns by degree of freedom

This work deals with two-phase Discrete Fracture Matrix models coupling the two-phase Darcy flow in the matrix domain to the two-phase Darcy flow in the network of fractures represented as co-dimension one surfaces. Two classes of such hybrid-dimensional models are investigated either based on nonlinear or linear transmission conditions at the matrix-fracture interfaces. The linear transmission conditions include the cell-centred upwind approximation of the phase mobilities classically used in the porous media flow community as well as a basic extension of the continuous phase pressure model accounting for fractures acting as drains. The nonlinear transmission conditions at the matrix-fracture interfaces are based on the normal flux continuity equation for each phase using additional interface phase pressure unknowns. They are compared both in terms of accuracy and numerical efficiency to a reference equi-dimensional model for which the fractures are represented as full-dimensional subdomains. The discretization focuses on Finite Volume cellcentred Two-Point Flux Approximation which is combined with a local nonlinear solver allowing to eliminate efficiently the additional matrix-fracture interfacial unknowns together with the nonlinear transmission conditions. 2D numerical experiments illustrate the better accuracy provided by the nonlinear transmission conditions compared to their linear approximations with a moderate computational overhead obtained thanks to the local nonlinear elimination at the matrix-fracture interfaces. The numerical section is complemented by a comparison of the reduced models on a 3D test case using the Vertex Approximate Gradient scheme.