Maria Vasilyeva

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Guanglian Li et al.

Complex processes in perforated domains occur in many real-world applications. These problems are typically characterized by physical processes in domains with multiple scales (see Figure 1 for the illustration of a perforated domain). Moreover, these problems are intrinsically multiscale and their discretizations can yield very large linear or nonlinear systems. In this paper, we investigate multiscale approaches that attempt to solve such problems on a coarse grid by constructing multiscale basis functions in each coarse grid, where the coarse grid can contain many perforations. In particular, we are interested in cases when there is no scale separation and the perforations can have different sizes. In this regard, we mention some earlier pioneering works [14, 18, 17], where the authors develop multiscale finite element methods. In our paper, we follow Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) and develop a multiscale procedure where we identify multiscale basis functions in each coarse block using snapshot space and local spectral problems. We show that with a few basis functions in each coarse block, one can accurately approximate the solution, where each coarse block can contain many small inclusions. We apply our general concept to (1) Laplace equation in perforated domain; (2) elasticity equation in perforated domain; and (3) Stokes equations in perforated domain. Numerical results are presented for these problems using two types of heterogeneous perforated domains. The analysis of the proposed methods will be presented elsewhere.

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Tat Leung et al.

Simulating complex processes in fractured media requires some type of model reduction. Well-known approaches include multi-continuum techniques, which have been commonly used in approximating subgrid effects for flow and transport in fractured media. Our goal in this paper is to (1) show a relation between multi-continuum approaches and Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) and (2) to discuss coupling these approaches for solving problems in complex multiscale fractured media. The GMsFEM, a systematic approach, constructs multiscale basis functions via local spectral decomposition in pre-computed snapshot spaces. We show that GMsFEM can automatically identify separate fracture networks via local spectral problems. We discuss the relation between these basis functions and continuums in multi-continuum methods. The GMsFEM can automatically detect each continuum and represent the interaction between the continuum and its surrounding (matrix). For problems with simplified fracture networks, we propose a simplified basis construction with the GMsFEM. This simplified approach is effective when the fracture networks are known and have simplified geometries. We show that this approach can achieve a similar result compared to the results using the GMsFEM with spectral basis functions. Further, we discuss the coupling between the GMsFEM and multi-continuum approaches. In this case, many fractures are resolved while for unresolved fractures, we use a multi-continuum approach with local Representative Volume Element (RVE) information. As a result, the method deals with a system of equations on a coarse grid, where each equation represents one of the continua on the fine grid. We present various basis construction mechanisms and numerical results.

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Wing Tat Leung et al.

In this paper, we develop and analyze an adaptive multiscale approach for heterogeneous problems in perforated domains. In many applications, these problems have a multiscale nature arising because of the perforations, their geometries, the sizes of the perforations, and configurations. In this paper, we present a general offline/online procedure, which can adequately and adaptively represent the local degrees of freedom and derive appropriate coarse-grid equations. The main contributions of this paper are (1) the rigorous analysis of the offline approach (2) the development of the online procedures and their analysis (3) the development of adaptive strategies. We present an online procedure, which allows adaptively incorporating global information and is important for a fast convergence when combined with the adaptivity. Our methodology allows adding and guides constructing new online multiscale basis functions adaptively in appropriate regions. We present the convergence analysis of the online adaptive enrichment algorithm for the Stokes system. In particular, we show that the online procedure has a rapid convergence with a rate related to the number of offline basis functions, and one can obtain fast convergence by a sufficient number of offline basis functions, which are computed in the offline stage. To illustrate the performance of our method, we present numerical results with both small and large perforations. We see that only a few (1 or 2) online iterations can significantly improve the offline solution.

Maria Vasilyeva, Eric T. Chung, Siu Wun Cheung et al.

Our goal of this paper is to develop a new upscaling method for multicontinua flow problems in fractured porous media. We consider a system of equations that describes flow phenomena with multiple flow variables defined on both matrix and fractures. To construct our upscaled model, we will apply the nonlocal multicontinua (NLMC) upscaling technique. The upscaled coefficients are obtained by using some multiscale basis functions, which are solutions of local problems defined on oversampled regions. For each continuum within a target coarse element, we will solve a local problem defined on an oversampling region obtained by extending the target element by few coarse grid layers, with a set of constraints which enforce the local solution to have mean value one on the chosen continuum and zero mean otherwise. The resulting multiscale basis functions have been shown to have good approximation properties. To illustrate the idea of our approach, we will consider a dual continua background model consisting of discrete fractures in two space dimensions, that is, we consider a system with three continua. We will present several numerical examples, and they show that our method is able to capture the interaction between matrix continua and discrete fractures on the coarse grid efficiently.

Siu Wun Cheung, Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev et al.

The dual continuum model serves as a powerful tool in the modeling of subsurface applications. It allows a systematic coupling of various components of the solutions. The system is of multiscale nature as it involves high heterogeneous and high contrast coefficients. To numerically compute the solutions, some types of reduced order methods are necessary. We will develop and analyze a novel multiscale method based on the recent advances in multiscale finite element methods. Our method will compute multiple local multiscale basis functions per coarse region. The idea is based on some local spectral problems, which are important to identify high contrast channels, and an energy minimization principle. Using these concepts, we show that the basis functions are localized, even in the presence of high contrast long channels and fractures. In addition, we show that the convergence of the method depends only on the coarse mesh size. Finally, we present several numerical tests to show the performance.

Min Wang, Siu Wun Cheung, Eric T. Chung et al.

Simulating flow in a highly heterogeneous reservoir with multiscale characteristics could be considerably demanding. To tackle this problem, we propose a numerical scheme coupling the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) with a triple-continuum model aimed at a faster simulator framework that can explicitly represent the interactions among different continua. To further enrich the descriptive ability of our proposed model, we combine the Discrete Fracture Model (DFM) to model the local effects of discrete fractures. In the proposed model, GMsFEM, as an advanced model reduction technique, enables capturing the multiscale flow dynamics. This is accomplished by systematically generating an approximation space through solving a series of local snapshot and spectral problems. The resulting eigenfunctions can pass the local features to the global level when acting as basis functions in coarse problems. Our goal in this paper is to further improve the accuracy of flow simulation in complicated reservoirs especially for the case when multiple discrete fractures located in single coarse neighborhood and multiscale finite element methods fail. Together with a detailed description of the model, several numerical experiments are conducted to confirm the success of our proposed method. A rigid proof is also given in the aspect of numerical analysis.

Maria Vasilyeva, Eric T. Chung, Wing Tat Leung et al.

In this work, we present an upscaled model for mixed dimensional coupled flow problem in fractured porous media. We consider both embedded and discrete fracture models (EFM and DFM) as fine scale models which contain coupled system of equations. For fine grid discretization, we use a conservative finite-volume approximation. We construct an upscaled model using the non-local multicontinuum (NLMC) method for the coupled system. The proposed upscaled model is based on a set of simplified multiscale basis functions for the auxiliary space and a constraint energy minimization principle for the construction of multiscale basis functions. Using the constructed NLMC-multiscale basis functions, we obtain an accurate coarse grid upscaled model. We present numerical results for both fine-grid models and upscaled coarse-grid models using our NLMC method. We consider model problems with (1) discrete fracture fine grid model with low and high permeable fractures; (2) embedded fine grid model for two types of geometries with differnet fracture networks and (3) embedded fracture fine grid model with heterogeneous permeability. The simulations using the upscaled model provide very accurate solutions with significant reduction in the dimension of the problem.

Maria Vasilyeva, Eric T. Chung, Wing Tat Leung et al.

In this paper, we present an upscaling method for problems in perforated domains with non-homogeneous boundary conditions on perforations. Our methodology is based on the recently developed Non-local multicontinuum method (NLMC). The main ingredient of the method is the construction of suitable local basis functions with the capability of capturing multiscale features and non-local effects. We will construct multiscale basis functions for the coarse regions and additional multiscale basis functions for perforations, with the aim of handling non-homogeneous boundary conditions on perforations. We start with describing our method for the Laplace equation, and then extending the framework for the elasticity problem and parabolic equations. The resulting upscaled model has minimal size and the solution has physical meaning on the coarse grid. We will present numerical results (1) for steady and unsteady problems, (2) for Laplace and Elastic operators, and (3) for Neumann and Robin non-homogeneous boundary conditions on perforations. Numerical results show that the proposed method can provide good accuracy and provide significant reduction on the degrees of freedom.

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Wing Tat Leung et al.

Numerical homogenization and multiscale finite element methods construct effective properties on a coarse grid by solving local problems and extracting the average effective properties from these local solutions. In some cases, the solutions of local problems can be expensive to compute due to scale disparity. In this setting, one can basically apply a homogenization or multiscale method re-iteratively to solve for the local problems. This process is known as re-iterated homogenization and has many variations in the numerical context. Though the process seems to be a straightforward extension of two-level process, it requires some careful implementation and the concept development for problems without scale separation and high contrast. In this paper, we consider the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) and apply it iteratively to construct its multiscale basis functions. The main idea of the GMsFEM is to construct snapshot functions and then extract multiscale basis functions (called offline space) using local spectral decompositions in the snapshot spaces. The extension of this construction to several levels uses snapshots and offline spaces interchangebly to achieve this goal. At each coarse-grid scale, we assume that the offline space is a good approximation of the solution and use all possible offline functions or randomization as boundary conditions and solve the local problems in the offline space at the previous (finer) level, to construct snapshot space. We present an adaptivity strategy and show numerical results for flows in heterogeneous media and in perforated domains.

Kelum Gajamannage, Dilhani I. Jayathilake, Maria Vasilyeva

Remote sensing images are widely utilized in many disciplines such as feature recognition and scene semantic segmentation. However, due to environmental factors and the issues of the imaging system, the image quality is often degraded which may impair subsequent visual tasks. Even though denoising remote sensing images plays an essential role before applications, the current denoising algorithms fail to attain optimum performance since these images possess complex features in the texture. Denoising frameworks based on artificial neural networks have shown better performance; however, they require exhaustive training with heterogeneous samples that extensively consume resources like power, memory, computation, and latency. Thus, here we present a computationally efficient and robust remote sensing image denoising method that doesn't require additional training samples. This method partitions patches of a remote-sensing image in which a low-rank manifold, representing the noise-free version of the image, underlies the patch space. An efficient and robust approach to revealing this manifold is a randomized approximation of the singular value spectrum of the geodesics' Gramian matrix of the patch space. The method asserts a unique emphasis on each color channel during denoising so the three denoised channels are merged to produce the final image.

Maria Vasilyeva, Aleksey Tyrylgin

In this paper, we consider a numerical homogenization of the poroelasticity problem with stochastic properties. The proposed method based on the construction of the deep neural network (DNN) for fast calculation of the effective properties for a coarse grid approximation of the problem. We train neural networks on the set of the selected realizations of the local microscale stochastic fields and macroscale characteristics (permeability and elasticity tensors). We construct a deep learning method through convolutional neural network (CNN) to learn a map between stochastic fields and effective properties. Numerical results are presented for two and three-dimensional model problems and show that proposed method provide fast and accurate effective property predictions.

Maria Vasilyeva, Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev et al.

In this paper, our aim is to present (1) an embedded fracture model (EFM) for coupled flow and mechanics problem based on the dual continuum approach on the fine grid and (2) an upscaled model for the resulting fine grid equations. The mathematical model is described by the coupled system of equation for displacement, fracture and matrix pressures. For a fine grid approximation, we use the finite volume method for flow problem and finite element method for mechanics. Due to the complexity of fractures, solutions have a variety of scales, and fine grid approximation results in a large discrete system. Our second focus in on constructing the upscaled coarse grid poroelasticity model for fractured media. Our upscaled approach is based on the nonlocal multicontinuum (NLMC) upscaling for coupled flow and mechanics problem, which involves computations of local basis functions via an energy minimization principle. This concept allows a systematic upscaling for processes in the fractured porous media, and provides an effective coarse scale model whose degrees of freedoms have physical meaning. We obtain a fast and accurate solver for the poroelasticity problem on a coarse grid and, at the same time, derive a novel upscaled model. We present numerical results for the two dimensional model problem.

Maria Vasilyeva, Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev et al.

Traditional two level upscaling techniques suffer from a high offline cost when the coarse grid size is much larger than the fine grid size. Thus, multilevel methods are desirable for problems with complex heterogeneities and high contrast. In this paper, we propose a novel three-level upscaling method for flow problems in fractured porous media. Our method starts with a fine grid discretization for the system involving fractured porous media. In the next step, based on the fine grid model, we construct a nonlocal multi-continua upscaling (NLMC) method using an intermediate grid. The system resulting from NLMC gives solutions that have physical meaning. In order to enhance locality, the grid size of the intermediate grid needs to be relatively small, and this motivates using such an intermediate grid. However, the resulting NLMC upscaled system has a relatively large dimension. This motivates a further step of dimension reduction. In particular, we will apply the idea of the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) to the NLMC system to obtain a final reduced model. We present simulation results for a two-dimensional model problem with a large number of fractures using the proposed three-level method.

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Wing Tat Leung et al.

In this paper, we propose a rigorous and accurate non-local (in the oversampled region) upscaling framework based on some recently developed multiscale methods [10]. Our proposed method consists of identifying multi-continua parameters via local basis functions and constructing non-local (in the oversampled region) transfer and effective properties. To achieve this, we significantly modify our recent work proposed within Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) in [10] and derive appropriate local problems in oversampled regions once we identify important modes representing each continua. We use piecewise constant functions in each fracture network and in the matrix to write an upscaled equation. Thus, the resulting upscaled equation is of minimal size and the unknowns are average pressures in the fractures and the matrix. We note that the use of non-local upscaled model for porous media flows is not new, e.g., in [14], the authors derive non-local approach. Our main contribution is identifying appropriate local problems together with local spectral modes to represent each continua. The model problem for fractures assumes that one can identify fracture networks. The resulting non-local equation (restricted to the oversampling region, which is several times larger compared to the target coarse block) has the same form as \cite{Hamdi_Nonlocal} with much smaller local regions. We present numerical results, which show that the proposed approach can provide good accuracy.

Eric T. Chung, Yalchin Efendiev, Bangti Jin et al.

In this work, we propose a generalized multiscale inversion algorithm for heterogeneous problems that aims at solving an inverse problem on a computational coarse grid. Previous inversion techniques for multiscale problems seek a coarse-grid media properties, e.g., permeability and conductivity, and by doing so, they assume that there exists a homogenized representation of the underlying fine-scale permeability field on a coarse grid. Generally such assumptions do not hold for highly heterogeneous fields, e.g., fracture media or channelized fields, where the width of channels are very small compared to the coarse-grid sizes. In these cases, grid refinement can lead to many degrees of freedom, and thus unattractive to apply. The proposed algorithm is based on the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM), which uses local spectral problems to identify non-localized features, i.e., channels (high-conductivity inclusions that connect the boundaries of the coarse-grid block). The inclusion of these features in the coarse space enables one to achieve a good accuracy. The approach is valid under the assumption that the solution can be well represented in a reduced-dimensional space by multiscale basis functions. In practice, these basis functions are non-observable as we do not identify the fine-scale features of the permeability field. Our inversion algorithm finds the discretization parameters of the resulting system. By doing so, we identify the appropriate coarse-grid parameters representing the permeability field instead of fine-grid permeability field. We illustrate the approach by numerical results for fractured media.

Eric T. Chung, Maria Vasilyeva, Yating Wang

In this paper, we present a new multiscale model reduction technique for the Stokes flows in heterogeneous perforated domains. The challenge in the numerical simulations of this problem lies in the fact that the solution contains many multiscale features and requires a very fine mesh to resolve all details. In order to efficiently compute the solutions, some model reductions are necessary. To obtain a reduced model, we apply the generalized multiscale finite element approach, which is a framework allowing systematic construction of reduced models. Based on this general framework, we will first construct a local snapshot space, which contains many possible multiscale features of the solution. Using the snapshot space and a local spectral problem, we identify dominant modes in the snapshot space and use them as the multiscale basis functions. Our basis functions are constructed locally with non-overlapping supports, which enhances the sparsity of the resulting linear system. In order to enforce the mass conservation, we propose a hybridized technique, and uses a Lagrange multiplier to achieve mass conservation. We will mathematically analyze the stability and the convergence of the proposed method. In addition, we will present some numerical examples to show the performance of the scheme. We show that, with a few basis functions per coarse region, one can obtain a solution with excellent accuracy.

I. Y. Akkutlu, Yalchin Efendiev, Maria Vasilyeva

In this paper, we develop a multiscale model reduction technique that describes shale gas transport in fractured media. Due to the pore-scale heterogeneities and processes, we use upscaled models to describe the matrix. We follow our previous work \cite{aes14}, where we derived an upscaled model in the form of generalized nonlinear diffusion model to describe the effects of kerogen. To model the interaction between the matrix and the fractures, we use Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method. In this approach, the matrix and the fracture interaction is modeled via local multiscale basis functions. We developed the GMsFEM and applied for linear flows with horizontal or vertical fracture orientations on a Cartesian fine grid. In this paper, we consider arbitrary fracture orientations and use triangular fine grid and developed GMsFEM for nonlinear flows. Moreover, we develop online basis function strategies to adaptively improve the convergence. The number of multiscale basis functions in each coarse region represents the degrees of freedom needed to achieve a certain error threshold. Our approach is adaptive in a sense that the multiscale basis functions can be added in the regions of interest. Numerical results for two-dimensional problem are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of proposed approach.