Generalized Lagrangian Coordinates for Transport and Two-Phase Flows in Heterogeneous Anisotropic Porous Media

Abstract

We show how Lagrangian coordinates provide an effective representation of how difficult non-linear, hyperbolic transport problems in porous media can be dealt with. Recalling Lagrangian description first, we then derive some basic but remarkable properties useful for the numerical com- putation of projected transport operators. We furthermore introduce new generalized Lagrangian coordinates with their application to the Darcy–Muskat two-phase flow models. We show how these generalized Lagrangian coordinates can be constructed from the global mass conservation, and that they are related to the existence of a global pressure previously defined in the literature about the subject. The whole representation is developed in two or three dimensions for numerical purposes, for isotropic or anisotropic heterogeneous porous media.