MPFA for Faults and Local Refinements in 3D Quadrilateral Grids With Application to Field Simulations

Abstract

Abstract This paper extends the multipoint flux-approximation (MPFA) control-volume method to 3D quadrilateral grids for which the adjacent cells do not necessarily share corners. Examples are grids with faults and locally refined grids. This paper gives a derivation of the method for such grids. The difference between two-point flux-approximation (TPFA) results and MPFA results for faults is demonstrated for synthetic problems. Further, the results are compared with results from uniform fine-grid simulations. The effect of repeated fault patterns as well as anisotropy is investigated. Large errors may be found for the TPFA method for flow through a series of faults in an anisotropic medium. Finally, a comparison is done for a reservoir field application.