Mixed GMsFEM for linear poroelasticity problems in heterogeneous porous media

Abstract

Accurate numerical simulations of interaction between fluid and solid play an important role in applications. The task is challenging in practical scenarios as the media are usually highly heterogeneous with very large contrast. To overcome this computational challenge, various multiscale methods are developed. In this paper, we consider a class of linear poroelasticity problems in high contrast heterogeneous porous media, and develop a mixed generalized multiscale finite element method (GMsFEM) to obtain a fast computational method. Our aim is to develop a multiscale method that is robust with respect to the heterogeneities and contrast of the media, and gives a mass conservative fluid velocity field. We will construct decoupled multiscale basis functions for the elastic displacement as well as fluid velocity. Our multiscale basis functions are local. The construction is based on some suitable choices of local snapshot spaces and local spectral decomposition, with the goal of extracting dominant modes of the solutions. For the pressure, we will use piecewise constant approximation. We will present several numerical examples to illustrate the performance of our method. Our results indicate that the proposed method is able to give accurate numerical solutions with a small degree of freedoms.