A new scheme for numerical modelling of flow and transport processes in 3D fractured porous media

The objective of this work is to develop a new numerical approach for the three-dimensional modelling of flow and transient solute transport in fractured porous media which would provide an accurate and efficient treatment of 3D complex geometries and inhomogeneities. For this reason, and in order to eliminate as much as possible the number of degrees of freedom, the fracture network, fractures and their intersections, are solved with a coupled 2D–1D model while the porous matrix is solved independently with a 3D model. The interaction between both models is accounted for by a coupling iterative technique. In this way it is possible to improve efficiency and reduce CPU usage by avoiding 3D mesh refinements of the fractures. The approach is based on the discrete-fracture model in which the exact geometry and location of each fracture in the network must be provided as an input. The formulation is based on a multidimensional coupling of the boundary element method-multidomain (BEM-MD) scheme for the flow and boundary element dual reciprocity method-multidomain (BE-DRM-MD) scheme for the transport. Accurate results and high efficiency have been obtained and are reported in this paper.