Gradient discretization of two-phase flows coupled with mechanical deformation in fractured porous media

Abstract

We consider a two-phase Darcy flow in a fractured porous medium consisting in a matrix flow coupled with a tangential flow in the fractures, described as a network of planar surfaces. This flow model is also coupled with the mechanical deformation of the matrix assuming that the fractures are open and filled by the fluids, as well as small deformations and a linear elastic constitutive law. The model is discretized using the gradient discretization method [26], which covers a large class of conforming and non conforming schemes. This framework allows for a generic convergence analysis of the coupled model using a combination of discrete functional tools. Here, we describe the model together with its numerical discretization, and we prove a convergence result assuming the non-degeneracy of the phase mobilities and that the discrete solutions remain physical in the sense that, roughly speaking, the porosity does not vanish and the fractures remain open. This is, to our knowledge, the first convergence result for this type of models taking into account two-phase flows in fractured porous media and the non-linear poromechanical coupling. Previous related works consider a linear approximation obtained for a single phase flow by freezing the fracture conductivity [36, 37]. Numerical tests employing the Two-Point Flux Approximation (TPFA) finite volume scheme for the flows and ${\mathbb{P}}_2$ finite elements for the mechanical deformation are also provided to illustrate the behavior of the solution to the model.

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• A Hybrid High-Order method for the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations based on Temam's device
• Unified approach to discretization of flow in fractured porous media
• Discontinuous Skeletal Gradient Discretisation Methods on polytopal meshes
• Gradient discretization of two-phase poro-mechanical models with discontinuous pressures at matrix fracture interfaces
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Hybrid mimetic finite-difference and virtual element formulation for coupled poromechanics
• Gradient discretization of two-phase poro-mechanical models with discontinuous pressures at matrix fracture interfaces
• Numerical analysis of a mixed-dimensional poromechanical model with frictionless contact at matrix-fracture interfaces