A Parallel Load-Balancing Reservoir Simulator with Dynamic Mesh Optimisation

Abstract

The use of dynamic mesh optimization (DMO) for multiphase flow in porous have been proposed recently showing a very good potential to reduce the computational cost by placing the resolution where and when necessary. Nonetheless, further work needs to be done to prove its usability in very large domains where parallel computing with distributed memory, i.e. using MPI libraries, may be necessary. Here, we describe the methodology used to parallelize a multiphase porous media flow simulator in combination with DMO as well as study of its performance. Due to the peculiarities and complexities of the typical porous media simulations due to its high aspect ratios, we have included a fail-safe for parallel simulations with DMO that enhance the robustness and stability of the methods used to parallelize DMO in other fields (Navier- Stokes flows). The results show that DMO for parallel computing in multiphase porous media flows can perform very well, showing good scaling behaviour.