Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Discontinuous Boundary Elements for Fluid Flow Problems in Discrete Fracture Networks

Version 1 : Received: 17 November 2019 / Approved: 19 November 2019 / Online: 19 November 2019 (02:55:27 CET)

How to cite: Wang, B.; Feng, Y.; Zhou, X.; Pieraccini, S.; Scialò, S.; Fidelibus, C. Discontinuous Boundary Elements for Fluid Flow Problems in Discrete Fracture Networks. Preprints 2019, 2019110215. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201911.0215.v1 Wang, B.; Feng, Y.; Zhou, X.; Pieraccini, S.; Scialò, S.; Fidelibus, C. Discontinuous Boundary Elements for Fluid Flow Problems in Discrete Fracture Networks. Preprints 2019, 2019110215. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201911.0215.v1

Abstract

Modeling fluid flow in three-dimensional (3D) Discrete Fracture Networks (DFNs) is of relevance in many engineering applications, such as hydraulic fracturing, oil/gas production, geothermal energy extraction, nuclear waste disposal and CO2 sequestration. A new Boundary Element Method (BEM) technique with discontinuous quadratic elements and a parallel Domain Decomposition Method (DDM) is presented herein for the simulation of the steady-state fluid flow in 3D DFN systems with wellbores, consisting of planar fractures having arbitrary properties and wellbore trajectories. Numerical examples characterized by DFNs of increasing complexity are investigated to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the presented technique. The results show that accurate solutions can be obtained with less nodes than with mesh-based methods (e.g. Finite Element Method). In addition, the DDM algorithm used provides a quite fast convergence. The simulation results of the fluid flow around intersections among traces (linear intersections between fractures), intersections between traces and a fracture boundaries, and wellbore intersections is accurate. Source code is available at : https://github.com/BinWang0213/PyDFN3D.

Supplementary and Associated Material

https://github.com/BinWang0213/PyDFN3D: Source code of PyDFN3D

Keywords

Discrete Fracture Network (DFN); fractured rock hydrology; Boundary Element Method (BEM); Domain Decomposition Method (DDM); subsurface fluid flow

Subject

Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology

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