Adaptive implicit finite element methods for multicomponent compressible flow in heterogeneous and fractured porous media

Abstract This work presents adaptive implicit first‐order and second‐order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for the transport of multicomponent compressible fluids in heterogeneous and fractured porous media, discretized by triangular, quadrilateral, and hexahedral grids. The adaptive implicit method (AIM) combines the advantages of purely explicit or implicit methods (in time). In grid cells with high fluxes or low pore volumes, the transport update is done implicitly to alleviate the Courant‐Friedrichs‐Lewy (CFL) time step constraints of the conditionally stable explicit approach. Grid cells with a large CFL condition are updated explicitly. Combined, this allows higher efficiency than explicit methods, but it reduces the “penalty” of implicit methods, which exhibit high numerical dispersion and are more computationally and storage expensive per time step. The advantages of AIM are modest for uniform grids and rock properties. However, in heterogeneous or fractured reservoirs explicit methods may become impractical, while a fully implicit approach introduces unnecessary numerical dispersion and is overkill for low‐permeability layers and matrix blocks. In such applications, AIM is shown to be significantly more efficient and accurate. The division between explicit and implicit grid cells is made adaptively in space and time. This allows for a high level of explicitness and can also adapt to high fluxes caused by, e.g., viscous and gravitational flow instabilities. Numerical examples demonstrate the powerful features of AIM to model, e.g., solute transport, carbon sequestration in saline aquifers, and miscible gas injection in fractured oil and gas reservoirs.