Mathematical modeling of fluid flows through the piecewise homogeneous porous medium by R-function method

Abstract

The stationary fluid flow through a piecewise homogeneous porous medium is considered under the assumption that Darcy's law holds. The mathematical model of this problem is defined as an elliptic equation for the stream function, supplemented by the second-type boundary conditions at the water boundaries and the first-type boundary conditions at the impervious to liquid boundaries. The problem statement also includes the conditions of conjugation at the separation line between two soils and the unknown value of fluid discharge, which can be established from the additional integral ratio. It is proposed to use the structure-variational method of R-functions in order to numerically analyze and solve the current problem. The complete solution structure for the boundary value problem of stream function regarding the R-functions method is established, moreover, the application of the Ritz method for approximating an unspecified structural formula component is substantiated. Then, the approximate value of the fluid discharge and the approximate solution of the original problem are found from the additional integral ratio. The computational experiment was carried out with different coefficients of permeability within the area, which has the shape of the lower half ring. It is established that as the number of coordinate functions increases, the value of fluid discharge becomes constant, indicating the convergence of the proposed method.