A collocated finite volume scheme for high-performance simulation of induced seismicity in geo-energy applications
Aleks Novikov (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
D. Voskov (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
M. Khait (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
Hadi Hajibeygi (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
JD Jansen (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
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Abstract
We develop a collocated Finite Volume Method (FVM) to study induced seismicity as a result of pore pressure fluctuations. A discrete system is obtained based on a fully-implicit coupled description of flow, elastic deformation, and contact mechanics at fault surfaces on a fully unstructured mesh. The cell-centered collocated scheme leads to convenient integration of the different physical equations, as the unknowns share the same discrete locations on the mesh. Additionally, a multi-point flux approximation is formulated in a general procedure to treat heterogeneity, anisotropy, and cross-derivative terms for both flow and mechanics equations. The resulting system, though flexible and accurate, can lead to excessive computational costs for field-relevant applications. To resolve this limitation, a scalable parallel solution algorithm is developed and presented. Several proof-of-concept numerical tests, including benchmark studies with analytical solutions, are investigated. It is found that the presented method is indeed accurate, stable and efficient; and as such promising for accurate and efficient simulation of induced seismicity.