Modeling of Flow in Three-Dimensional, Multizone, Anisotropic Porous Media with Weakly Singular Integral Equation Method

Abstract

A symmetric Galerkin boundary element method is developed for modeling steady-state Darcy’s flow in three-dimensional porous media. The proposed technique is capable of treating a nonhomogeneous medium that consists of several regions possessing different permeabilities and may contain a surface of discontinuity such as impermeable seals. The key governing equations are established based on a pair of weakly singular weak-form integral equations for the fluid pressure and the fluid flux. The crucial feature of those integral equations are that they are