Two-scale preconditioning for two-phase nonlinear flows in porous media

Abstract

Solving realistic problems related to flow in porous media to desired accuracy may be prohibitively expensive with available computing resources. Multiscale effects and nonlinearities in the governing equations are among the most important contributors to this situation. Hence, developing methods that handle these features better is essential in order to be able to solve the problems more efficiently. Focus has until recently largely been on preconditioners for linearized problems. This article proposes a two-scale nonlinear preconditioning technique for flow problems in porous media that allows for incorporating physical intuition directly in the preconditioner. By assuming a certain dominant physical process, this technique will resemble upscaling in the equilibrium limit, with the computational benefits that follow. In this study, the method is established as a preconditioner with good scalability properties for challenging problems regardless of dominant physics, thus laying the foundation for further studies with physical information in the preconditioner.