Random Walk Methods for Modeling Hydrodynamic Transport in Porous and Fractured Media from Pore to Reservoir Scale

Abstract

Random walk (RW) or Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) are recurring Monte Carlo methods used to model convective and diffusive transport in complex heterogeneous media. Many applications can be found, including fluid mechanic, hydrology, and chemical reactors modeling. These methods are easy to implement, very versatile and flexible enough to become appealing for many applications because they generally overlook of deeply simplify the building of explicit complex meshes required by deterministic methods. RW and CTRW provide a good physical understanding of the interactions between the space scales of het-erogeneities and the transport phenomena under consideration. In addition, they can result in efficient up-scaling methods, especially in context of flow and transport in fractured media. In the present study, we review the applications of RW or CTRW for several situations coping with various spatial scales, and different insights into up-scaling applications. RW and CTRW advantages and downsides are also discussed, thus providing a few avenues for further works and applications.