| Abstract: | The equations governing immiscible, incompressible, two-phase, porous media flow are discretized by generalized streamline diffusion Petrov–Galerkin methods in space and by implicit differences in time. Systems of non-linear algebraic equations are solved by Newton–Raphson iteration employing ILU-preconditioned conjugate-gradient-like methods to the non-symmetric matrix system in each iteration. The resulting solution methods are robust, enable complex grids with irregular nodal orderings and allow capillary effects. Several numerical formulations are tested and compared for one-, two- and three-dimensional flow cases, with emphasis on problems involving saturation shocks, heterogeneous media and curved boundaries. For reservoirs consisting of multiple rock types with differing capillary pressure properties, it is shown that traditional Bubnov-Galerkin methods give poor results and the new Petrov–Galerkin formulations are required. Investigations regarding the behaviour of several preconditioned conjugate-gradient-like methods in these type of problems are also reported. |
