Andrés Arrarás

Andrés Arrarás, Francisco J. Gaspar, Laura Portero et al.

In this paper, we present a monolithic multigrid method for the efficient solution of flow problems in fractured porous media. Specifically, we consider a mixed-dimensional model which couples Darcy flow in the porous matrix with Forchheimer flow within the fractures. A suitable finite volume discretization permits to reduce the coupled problem to a system of nonlinear equations with a saddle point structure. In order to solve this system, we propose a full approximation scheme (FAS) multigrid solver that appropriately deals with the mixed-dimensional nature of the problem by using mixed-dimensional smoothing and inter-grid transfer operators. Remarkably, the nonlinearity is localized in the fractures, and no coupling between the porous matrix and the fracture unknowns is needed in the smoothing procedure. Numerical experiments show that the proposed multigrid method is robust with respect to the fracture permeability, the Forchheimer coefficient and the mesh size.

Andrés Arrarás, Francisco J. Gaspar, Laura Portero et al.

This paper deals with the efficient numerical solution of single-phase flow problems in fractured porous media. A monolithic multigrid method is proposed for solving two-dimensional arbitrary fracture networks with vertical and/or horizontal possibly intersecting fractures. The key point is to combine two-dimensional multigrid components (smoother and inter-grid transfer operators) in the porous matrix with their one-dimensional counterparts within the fractures, giving rise to a mixed-dimensional multigrid method. This combination seems to be optimal since it provides an algorithm whose convergence matches the multigrid convergence factor for solving the Darcy problem. Several numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the robustness of the monolithic mixed-dimensional multigrid method with respect to the permeability of the fractures, the grid size and the number of fractures in the network.

Andrés Arrarás, Laura Portero

In this paper, we consider multipoint flux mixed finite element discretizations for slightly compressible Darcy flow in porous media. The methods are formulated on general meshes composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra or hexahedra. An inexact Newton method that allows for local velocity elimination is proposed for the solution of the nonlinear fully discrete scheme. We derive optimal error estimates for both the scalar and vector unknowns in the semidiscrete formulation. Numerical examples illustrate the convergence behaviour of the methods, and their performance on test problems including permeability coefficients with increasing heterogeneity.

Laura Portero, Andrés Arrarás, Francisco J. Gaspar et al.

We study the slightly compressible Darcy-Forchheimer equations modeling gas flow in porous media, particularly in applications related to combustion processes. The equations are discretized in time using the backward Euler method and in space via a mixed finite element scheme. As a result, a nonlinear algebraic system is obtained at each time step. We propose and analyze a general iterative linearization scheme for the efficient solution of such systems and study its convergence properties at the discrete level. The performance and robustness of the scheme are assessed through a series of numerical experiments. The method is compared with standard iterative solvers, and further tested on problems with discontinuous permeability fields. The results demonstrate its reliability and competitiveness in regimes characterized by strong nonlinear effects.

Andrés Arrarás, Laura Portero

In this paper, we propose a numerical method for the solution of time-dependent flow problems in mixed form. Such problems can be efficiently approximated on hierarchical grids, obtained from an unstructured coarse triangulation by using a regular refinement process inside each of the initial coarse elements. If these elements are considered as subdomains, we can formulate a non-overlapping domain decomposition method based on the lowest-order Raviart-Thomas elements, properly enhanced with Lagrange multipliers on the boundaries of each subdomain (excluding the Dirichlet edges). A suitable choice of mixed finite element spaces and quadrature rules yields a cell-centered scheme for the pressures with a local 10-point stencil. The resulting system of differential-algebraic equations is integrated in time by the Crank-Nicolson method, which is known to be a stiffly accurate scheme. As a result, we obtain independent subdomain linear systems that can be solved in parallel. The behaviour of the algorithm is illustrated on a variety of numerical experiments.

Andrés Arrarás, Laura Portero

In this work, we study time-splitting strategies for the numerical approximation of evolutionary reaction-diffusion problems. In particular, we formulate a family of domain decomposition splitting methods that overcomes some typical limitations of classical alternating direction implicit (ADI) schemes. The splitting error associated with such methods is observed to be $\mathcal{O}(τ^2)$ in the time step $τ$. In order to decrease the size of this splitting error to $\mathcal{O}(τ^3)$, we add a correction term to the right-hand side of the original formulation. This procedure is based on the improved initialization technique proposed by Douglas and Kim in the framework of ADI methods. The resulting non-iterative schemes reduce the global system to a collection of uncoupled subdomain problems that can be solved in parallel. Computational results comparing the newly derived algorithms with the Crank-Nicolson scheme and certain ADI methods are presented.