U.S.-Brazil Cooperative Research on Numerical Methods to Model Fluid Flow in a Naturally Fractured Porous Medium

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This award supports Dr. Jim Douglas, Jr., of Purdue University for two research visits to Brazil and incidental expenses of his collaboration with Dr. Paulo Paes Leme of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Their research involves the application of numerical methods to simulate the immiscible displacement of one fluid by another in a naturally fractured porous medium. Particular attention will be given to the proper boundary conditions for the partial differential equations describing the rock matrix. Their modelling approach should improve the approximation of various aspects of fluid flow which have been treated inadequately in current models, such as the interaction between the fluids in the fractures and those in the porous rock. The numerical methods will be based on both theoretical and experimental studies, and the algorithms will be formulated in such ways as to facilitate processing on vector and parallel computers. Both investigators have strong records in computational fluid dynamics; their collaboration has been very productive and has applications in oil reservoir simulation which could ultimately improve oil recovery.