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Tchelepi, Hamdi

Publications and source records attributed to Tchelepi, Hamdi.

A two-stage adaptive stochastic collocation method on nested sparse grids for multiphase flow in randomly heterogeneous porous media

A new computational method is proposed for efficient uncertainty quantification of multiphase flow in porous media with stochastic permeability. For pressure estimation, it combines the dimension-adaptive stochastic collocation method on Smolyak sparse grids and the Kronrod–Patterson–Hermite nested quadrature formulas. For saturation estimation, an additional stage is developed, in which the pressure and velocity samples are first generated by the sparse grid interpolation and then substituted into the transport equation to solve for the saturation samples, to address the low regularity problem of the saturation. Numerical examples are presented for multiphase flow with stochastic permeability fields to demonstrate accuracy and efficiency of the proposed two-stage adaptive stochastic collocation method on nested sparse grids.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Multiscale Simulation Framework for Coupled Fluid Flow and Mechanical Deformation

Our work in this project is aimed at making fundamental advances in multiscale methods for flow and transport in highly heterogeneous porous media. The main thrust of this research is to develop a systematic multiscale analysis and efficient coarse-scale models that can capture global effects and extend existing multiscale approaches to problems with additional physics and uncertainties. A key emphasis is on problems without an apparent scale separation. Multiscale solution methods are currently under active investigation for the simulation of subsurface flow in heterogeneous formations. These procedures capture the effects of fine-scale permeability variations through the calculation of specialized coarse-scale basis functions. Most of the multiscale techniques presented to date employ localization approximations in the calculation of these basis functions. For some highly correlated (e.g., channelized) formations, however, global effects are important and these may need to be incorporated into the multiscale basis functions. Other challenging issues facing multiscale simulations are the extension of existing multiscale techniques to problems with additional physics, such as compressibility, capillary effects, etc. In our project, we explore the improvement of multiscale methods through the incorporation of additional (single-phase flow) information and the development of a general multiscale framework for flows in the presence of uncertainties, compressible flow and heterogeneous transport, and geomechanics. We have considered (1) adaptive local-global multiscale methods, (2) multiscale methods for the transport equation, (3) operator-based multiscale methods and solvers, (4) multiscale methods in the presence of uncertainties and applications, (5) multiscale finite element methods for high contrast porous media and their generalizations, and (6) multiscale methods for geomechanics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Multiscale Simulation Framework for Coupled Fluid Flow and Mechanical Deformation

A multiscale linear-solver framework for the pressure equation associated with flow in highly heterogeneous porous formations was developed. The multiscale based approach is cast in a general algebraic form, which facilitates integration of the new scalable linear solver in existing flow simulators. The Algebraic Multiscale Solver (AMS) is employed as a preconditioner within a multi-stage strategy. The formulations investigated include the standard MultiScale Finite-Element (MSFE) andMultiScale Finite-Volume (MSFV) methods. The local-stage solvers include incomplete factorization and the so-called Correction Functions (CF) associated with the MSFV approach. Extensive testing of AMS, as an iterative linear solver, indicate excellent convergence rates and computational scalability. AMS compares favorably with advanced Algebraic MultiGrid (AMG) solvers for highly detailed three-dimensional heterogeneous models. Moreover, AMS is expected to be especially beneficial in solving time-dependent problems of coupled multiphase flow and transport in large-scale subsurface formations.

02 PETROLEUM↗