Degenerate two-phase incompressible flow III. Sharp error estimates

Summary. This is the third paper of a series in which we analyze mathematical properties and develop numerical methods for a degenerate elliptic-parabolic partial differential system which describes the flow of two incompressible, immiscible fluids in porous media. In this paper we consider a finite element approximation for this system. The elliptic equation for the pressure and velocity is approximated by a mixed finite element method, while the degenerate parabolic equation for the saturation is approximated by a Galerkin finite element method. A fully discrete approximation is analyzed. Sharp error estimates in energy norms are obtained for this approximation. The error analysis does not use any regularization of the saturation equation; the error estimates are derived directly from the degenerate equation. Also, the analysis does not impose any restriction on the nature of degeneracy. Finally, it respects the minimal regularity on the solution of the differential system. Received March 9, 1998 / Revised version received July 17, 2000 / Published online May 30, 2001     

Effective equations of two-phase flow in random media

We consider the behavior of incompressible two-phase flow in heterogeneous reservoirs with randomly placed heterogeneities; that is, in media with permeabilityA and porosity which are stationary random fields. We assume both Darcy velocity and the diffusion flux being given nonlinear functions of the concentration. Using the tools of stochastic homogenization we get the nonlinear effective equations which govern the flow behavior in a homogeneous medium, being equivalent in the sense of homogenization theory, to the original one. When is small the randomly heterogeneous porous medium behaves like a deterministic medium with effective permeability tensor A^o. It is shown how to calculate the effective permeability tensor A^o by solving auxiliary stochastic problems. Using the rescaling parameter, corresponding to the characteristic scale of heterogeneities, we prove the convergence of the homogenization process for 0. Furthermore, by using regularity results for the nonlinear effective equations we construct the correctors and establish strong convergence.

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Résumé On considère le comportement des écoulements diphasiques incompressibles dans un réservoir hétérogène avec les hétérogénéités placées aléatoirement; c'est-à-dire, dans un milieux où la permeabilitéA et la porosité sont des champs aléatoires stochastiquement homogénes. On suppose à la fois que le vecteur flux de diffusion et la vitesse de Darcy sont des fonctions nonlinéaires de la concentration. En utilisant les techniques d'homogénéisation stochastique on obtient à grande échelle des équations nonlinéaires efficaces décrivants un écoulement en milieux poreux equivalent à l'écoulement original dans le sens de la théorie de l'homogénéisation. Le milieu poreux aléatoire se comporte à grande échelle comme un milieux deterministe avec un tenseur efficace de permeabilité A ^o , pour suffisemment petit. Ce tenseur de perméabilité efficace est calculé en resolvant des problèmes stochastiques auxilliaires. Lorsque le paramétre, correspondant à l'échelle caractéristique des hétérogénéités, tend vers zero, nous montrons la convergence du processus d'homogénéisation. Finalement, en utilisant des résultats de régularité pour les équations efficaces nonlineaires obtenues, nous construisons les correcteurs et démontrons la convergence forte.

     

A global existence result for the equations describing unsaturated flow in porous media with dynamic capillary pressure

In this paper we investigate the pseudoparabolic equation

     

Existence and regularity for a nonlinear boundary flow problem of population genetics

In this paper we consider a heat equation with nonlinear boundary condition occurring in population genetics, the selection–migration problem for alleles in a region, considering flow of genes throughout the boundary. Such a problem determines a gradient flow in a convenient phase space and then the dynamics for large times depends heavily on the knowledge of the equilibrium solutions. We address the questions of the existence of a nontrivial equilibrium solution and its regularity.     

Asymptotic behavior of the solutions to the damped compressible Euler equations with vacuum

The asymptotic behavior of solutions of the damped compressible Euler equations is conjectured to obey to the famous porous media equations (PMES). The previous works on this topic concern the case away from vacuum where the system is strictly hyperbolic. In present paper, we prove that the L^∞ entropy weak solution with vacuum, obtained by the compensated compactness theory, converges strongly in space to the unique similarity solution of the related PME, as time goes to infinity.     

Local well-posedness and regularity criterion for the density dependent incompressible Euler equations

In this paper, local well-posedness for the density dependent incompressible Euler equations is established in Besov spaces. We also obtain a blow-up criterion for the corresponding solution.     

A blow-up criterion for a 2D viscous liquid-gas two-phase flow model

In this paper, we prove a blow-up criterion in terms of the upper bound of the liquid mass for the strong solution to the two-dimensional (2D) viscous liquid-gas two-phase flow model in a smooth bounded domain. The result also applies to three-dimensional (3D) case.     

Error estimates for a mixed finite element discretization of some degenerate parabolic equations

We consider a numerical scheme for a class of degenerate parabolic equations, including both slow and fast diffusion cases. A particular example in this sense is the Richards equation modeling the flow in porous media. The numerical scheme is based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM) in space, and is of one step implicit in time. The lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements are used. Here we extend the results in Radu et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 42:1452–1478, 2004), Schneid et al. (Numer Math 98:353–370, 2004) to a more general framework, by allowing for both types of degeneracies. We derive error estimates in terms of the discretization parameters and show the convergence of the scheme. The features of the MFEM, especially of the lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements, are now fully exploited in the proof of the convergence. The paper is concluded by numerical examples.     

Two regularity criteria for the 3D MHD equations

This work establishes two regularity criteria for the 3D incompressible MHD equations. The first one is in terms of the derivative of the velocity field in one direction while the second one requires suitable boundedness of the derivative of the pressure in one direction.     

Existence of weak solutions for a non-classical sharp interface model for a two-phase flow of viscous,incompressible fluids

We introduce a new sharp interface model for the flow of two immiscible, viscous, incompressible fluids. In contrast to classical models for two-phase flows we prescribe an evolution law for the interfaces that takes diffusional effects into account. This leads to a coupled system of Navier–Stokes and Mullins–Sekerka type parts that coincides with the asymptotic limit of a diffuse interface model. We prove the long-time existence of weak solutions, which is an open problem for the classical two-phase model. We show that the phase interfaces have in almost all points a generalized mean curvature.     

Analysis on linear stability of oblique shock waves in steady supersonic flow

An attached oblique shock wave is generated when a sharp solid projectile flies supersonically in the air. We study the linear stability of oblique shock waves in steady supersonic flow under three dimensional perturbation in the incoming flow. Euler system of equations for isentropic gas model is used. The linear stability is established for shock front with supersonic downstream flow, in addition to the usual entropy condition.     

Asymptotic stability of Oseen vortices for a density-dependent incompressible viscous fluid

In the analysis of the long-time behavior of two-dimensional incompressible viscous fluids, Oseen vortices play a major role as attractors of any homogeneous solution with integrable initial vorticity [T. Gallay, C.E. Wayne, Global stability of vortex solutions of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation, Commun. Math. Phys. 255 (1) (2005) 97–129]. As a first step in the study of the density-dependent case, the present paper establishes the asymptotic stability of Oseen vortices for slightly inhomogeneous fluids with respect to localized perturbations.     

Global existence of BV solutions and relaxation limit for a model of multiphase reactive flow

We consider a strictly hyperbolic system of balance laws in one space variable, that represents a simple model for a fluid flow in the presence of phase transitions. The state variables are specific volume, velocity and mass-density fraction λ of the vapor in the fluid. A reactive source term drives the dynamics of the phase mixtures; such a term depends on a relaxation parameter and involves an equilibrium pressure, allowing for metastable states.First we prove the global existence of weak solutions to the Cauchy problem, where the initial datum for λ is close either to 0 or 1 (the pure phases) and has small total variation, while the initial variations of pressure and velocity are not necessarily small. Then we consider the relaxation limit and prove that the weak solutions of the full system converge to those of the reduced system.     

A combined finite volume–nonconforming/mixed-hybrid finite element scheme for degenerate parabolic problems

We propose and analyze a numerical scheme for nonlinear degenerate parabolic convection–diffusion–reaction equations in two or three space dimensions. We discretize the diffusion term, which generally involves an inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion tensor, over an unstructured simplicial mesh of the space domain by means of the piecewise linear nonconforming (Crouzeix–Raviart) finite element method, or using the stiffness matrix of the hybridization of the lowest-order Raviart–Thomas mixed finite element method. The other terms are discretized by means of a cell-centered finite volume scheme on a dual mesh, where the dual volumes are constructed around the sides of the original mesh. Checking the local Péclet number, we set up the exact necessary amount of upstream weighting to avoid spurious oscillations in the convection-dominated case. This technique also ensures the validity of the discrete maximum principle under some conditions on the mesh and the diffusion tensor. We prove the convergence of the scheme, only supposing the shape regularity condition for the original mesh. We use a priori estimates and the Kolmogorov relative compactness theorem for this purpose. The proposed scheme is robust, only 5-point (7-point in space dimension three), locally conservative, efficient, and stable, which is confirmed by numerical experiments.This work was supported by the GdR MoMaS, CNRS-2439, ANDRA, BRGM, CEA, EdF, France.     

Numerical solution of steady-state porous flow free boundary problems

Summary A new numerical method is used to solve stationary free boundary problems for fluid flow through porous media. The method also applies to inhomogeneous media, and to cases with a partial unsaturated flow.     

On regularity criteria for the n-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in terms of the pressure

We study the Cauchy problem for the n-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations (n?3), and prove some regularity criteria involving the integrability of the pressure or the pressure gradient for weak solutions in the Morrey, Besov and multiplier spaces.     

Global well-posedness of incompressible flow in porous media with critical diffusion in Besov spaces

In this paper we study the model of heat transfer in a porous medium with a critical diffusion. We obtain global existence and uniqueness of solutions to the equations of heat transfer of incompressible fluid in Besov spaces with 1?p?∞ by the method of modulus of continuity and Fourier localization technique.