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

该奖项支持普渡大学的Jim Douglas博士前往巴西进行两次研究访问，以及他与里约热内卢天主教大学的Paulo Paes Leme博士合作的附带费用。他们的研究涉及应用数值方法来模拟一种流体在天然裂缝多孔介质中被另一种流体非混相驱替。将特别注意描述岩石矩阵的偏微分方程的适当边界条件。他们的建模方法应该改善流体流动的各个方面的近似，这些方面在目前的模型中没有得到充分的处理，例如裂缝中的流体和多孔岩石中的流体之间的相互作用。数值方法将建立在理论和实验研究的基础上，算法将以这样的方式制定，以便于在矢量和并行计算机上进行处理。两位研究者在计算流体动力学方面都有很强的记录；他们的合作非常有成效，并在油藏模拟中得到了应用，最终可以提高石油采收率。

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.