EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Modeling Flow in Vuggy Porous Media
Speaker: Heather Lehr
Speaker Info: University of Texas
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Carbonate rocks sometimes contain cavities called vugs which are large relative to the pore size. The eventual goal in mind is to accurately model flow in large subsurface systems composed of vuggy carbonate rock. We present a micro-scale model of the flow using Darcy's law in the rock matrix coupled with Stokes flow in the vugs with a Beavers-Joseph-Saffman condition imposed on the interface between the two. We use homogenization techniques to obtain an upscaled model for the flow. Moreover, the homogenized model includes a modified effective permeability matrix, accounting for the effect of the vugs on the macro-scale flow. This permeability matrix is computable and toward that end we develop a nonconforming numerical method for solving the micro-scale system.