A new approach for modeling of fluid flow in naturally fractured porous media

Resumo

It is important to consider the distinct hydraulic properties of the discontinuities and porous matrix in
the numerical simulation of fluid flow in fractured porous medium. In this sense, many researchers have been
proposed numerical models in the context of discrete fracture approaches. In general, numerical models with a
discrete fracture representation present a large number of degrees of freedom to adequately represent the
discontinuities, and as a consequence, requires high computational cost to solve the problem, even with a small
number of fractures. The present work introduces an approach based on the use of coupling finite elements to
consider the effect of the fractures in the simulation of steady-state fluid flow in fractured porous media. This
scheme allows the independent discretization of fractures and matrix (overlapping non-matching meshes) without
increasing the total number of degrees of freedom of the problem. Two examples are performed to demonstrate
the versatility of the proposed model.