Article

pubs.acs.org/EF

Hybrid Multiscale Modeling through Direct Substitution of PoreScale Models into Near-Well Reservoir Simulators
Tie Sun, Yashar Mehmani, and Matthew T. Balho*
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C0300, Austin, Texas
78712-0228, United States
ABSTRACT: A hybrid, multiscale reservoir simulator has been developed that directly substitutes pore-scale models for
continuum-scale, nite-dierence grids. Over 7500 pore scale models (75 million pores) are inserted into a 1 m2 pore-scale
region around a producing well, which is coupled to an outer, ne-scale nite-dierence model with 10 000 cell-centered grids.
This computationally demanding problem is possible because the domain is decomposed into manageable subdomains
(thousands of pore-scale models and one continuum region) and then coupled together using nite-element mortars to ensure
continuity between the subdomains. Here, ow is single-phase, single-component, and steady-state, but the potential of the
simulator for more complex, near-well ows is demonstrated. A priori, direct upscaling and a posteriori, global upscaling are both
performed, and it is shown that the direct approach results in signicant inaccuracies in the pressure and ow elds but the global
upscaling approach results in a good approximation.

1. INTRODUCTION
Sub-surface simulators are used to model ow and transport of
many applications in porous media, including hydrocarbon
recovery, carbon sequestration, groundwater remediation, and
nuclear waste storage. These simulators are modeled at the
continuum scale using semi-empirical equations (e.g., Darcys
law) because of the large scales (103104 m) of interest in the
sub-surface. The models require macroscopic inputs, such as
permeability, porosity, and relative permeability curves. In
general, these values must be estimated from the geological data
or measured from laboratory experiments.
Recent improvements in pore-scale (104102 m) modeling suggest that direct numerical simulation through the pore
space has reached a level of accuracy that they could be used as
surrogates for experiments.15 This is largely a result of
improved imaging capabilities and better description and
solution of the fundamental ow equations in the pore space.
Pore-scale approaches include direct computational uid
dynamics modeling using the nite-element method (FEM)
or Lattice Boltzmann,6 level-set approaches,7 and network
modeling.8,9 Network models require some approximations to
the ow equations but have the advantage of modeling at
slightly larger scales (103102 m).
Despite improvements in pore-scale modeling, questions
remain as to the ability to extract macroscopic parameters from
a stand-alone, small-scale model. Even if the model is large
enough to be considered a representative elementary volume
(REV), inaccuracies can arise because the imposed boundary
conditions do not reect ow and transport in surrounding
media.1013 Ideally, ow and transport could be modeled in a
single, large pore-scale model that spans 102100 m and
millions of pores, but this is computationally impractical. As a
result, accurate multiscale methods are sought that upscale
pore-level ow behavior to the continuum scale. A lofty goal
would involve multiscale simulation via direct substitution of
pore-scale models for ne grids in strategic parts of a reservoir
(e.g., near wells). Such a hybrid (pore-to-continuum) model
2012 American Chemical Society

would be unique and allow for extremely powerful modeling of

sub-surface ow phenomena. The diculty of such an approach
includes computational limitations but, more importantly, an
ability to bridge and couple scales. Balho et al.10 were one of
the rst to couple a pore-scale model directly to a continuum
model. That work demonstrated that boundary conditions
provided by adjacent media do aect pore-scale ow.
Scheibe et al.14 coined the term hybrid methods to refer to
coupled modeling of both scales in the context of porous media
simulation; a research area still in its infancy. Tartakovsky et
al. 15 used a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)
formulation of diusion-dominated reactive transport in porenetwork and continuum models and managed to couple them
explicitly without iterations. For a review of particle-based
multiscale simulations, see the study by Koumoutsakos.16 Chu
et al.17 used a novel way of coupling mass conservation
equations with constitutive laws derived directly from porescale networks. Their work is based on sampling small-scale
representations of the domain. Proofs of convergence were
provided, and examples for case studies were given.
Hybrid multiscale modeling can also be accomplished using
domain decomposition approaches, as was performed by
Balho et al.10 Mortar coupling is one class of domain
decomposition methods in which a large boundary value
problem (BVP) is split into a number of smaller BVPs dened
over smaller non-overlapping subdomains, with interface
conditions in between them. The entire problem along with
the interface conditions is solved through an iterative procedure
in an eort to match uxes at the interfaces. The decoupled
subdomains are independent from each other; therefore, they
can include dierent models, physics, solution algorithms, or
meshes. Moreover, the subdomains can have non-matching
Received: June 13, 2012
Revised: July 19, 2012
Published: July 27, 2012
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dimensions. This allows for immense exibility in modeling

highly heterogeneous multiprocess phenomena in the subsurface with the ability to increase modeling resolution locally.
Most importantly, the problem easily lends itself to parallel
computing because of the independence of the subdomains.
Arbogast et al.18 used mortar spaces to approximate the trace
of the solution at the subdomain interfaces by imposing weak
ux continuity. In this study, they set up a simple elliptic model
problem dened on non-matching multiblock grids and used it
to derive the weak formulation of the subdomains as well as the
interface problem and investigated convergence and error
estimates. Wheeler et al.19 and Peszynska et al.20 demonstrated
the applicability and capability of the mortar method in various
multiphase case studies in highly heterogeneous domains,
demonstrated its potential as a new generation reservoir
simulator (IPARS), and denoted them as a new upscaling
methodology for multiphase ow, with similarities to the
subgrid upscaling method. 21 Thomas and Wheeler 22
introduced a novel extension of an enhanced velocity mixed
FEM to ow and reactive transport problems.
Balho et al.11 rst used mortar coupling to couple pore-scale
models with other pore-scale models or continuum models. In
that work, pore-scale models were coupled to adjacent nitedierence models and interface pressure elds were determined
in such a way that uxes matched weakly over that same
interface. Sun et al.13 used the mortar approach to couple
hundreds of pore-scale models in a rigorous upscaling scheme.
They showed that the upscaled permeability was more accurate
than obtained through more straightforward hierarchical
methods. However, to our knowledge, no one has successfully
attempted to directly substitute pore-scale models into a subsurface reservoir simulator, at least at the scale studied here.
In this work, we present a rst-of-its-kind sub-surface, hybrid
reservoir simulator that directly substitutes thousands of porescale models for continuum-scale grids in a 1 m2 region. The
pore-scale models are coupled to each other as well as to an
outer Darcy-scale region using mortars. The novel multiscale
simulator could be used for accurate modeling of nonlinear and
dynamic near-well phenomena (non-Darcy ow, skin, acid
transport in injection strategies, formation damage, etc.) that
require pore-scale investigation while still maintaining the
computational eciency of continuum-scale modeling in the
remainder of the reservoir.

Figure 1. Areal geometry and boundary of the hybrid, multiscale

simulator. The continuum region is 2D with a thickness of 1 cm, and
the pore-scale region is 3D.
continuum-scale region includes 10 000 ne (1 cm3) grid blocks of
uniform permeability (1 106 cm2). Constant pressure boundary
conditions are imposed in the well (P = 7 105 Pa at r = 10 cm) and
the outer boundary (P = 7.2 105 Pa).
The simulator is decomposed into 7549 subdomains (7548 porescale network models and 1 continuum-scale, nite-dierence model).
Each of the subdomains is solved independently and could be
distributed across multiple processors for computational eciency,
although here, they are solved on a single processor. Flow is singlephase and steady-state throughout the model. Each network model is
solved in the usual way;1,8 a mass balance is imposed at each of the N
pores in the network, which leads to a system of N linear equations.
Solution to the system of equations gives pore pressures, which, in
turn, provide throat ow rates and total Darcy velocity across all six
boundaries of the network. The continuum, nite-dierence region is
solved implicitly using cell-centered grids, Darcys law for velocity, and
a harmonic mean for interblock permeability.
Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed at four subdomain
interfaces, and Neumann boundary conditions are applied at the top
and bottom sides. Unlike typical network modeling studies, the
boundary conditions at network faces are not a single, constant
pressure but, instead, are pressure elds that vary spatially over the
network face. The pressure boundary conditions are described as a
linear combination of basis functions over a coarse mortar grid. Here,
we have used 3 3 mortars at network interfaces and implemented
piecewise, bilinear basis functions

2. MATHEMATICAL APPROACH
2.1. Multiscale Simulator Description and Modeling
Approach. Figure 1 depicts the geometry of the near-well, hybrid,
and multiscale simulator, which is areal and pseudo-three-dimensional
(3D) [the pore-scale models are 3D, but the continuum blocks are
only 1 grid block in thickness and therefore two-dimensional (2D)].
Although the geometry is Cartesian and square, the wellbore geometry
is a multisided polygon, so that it approximates a circle with a radius of
10 cm. The pore-scale region extends to a radius of 0.5 m, and the
continuum region extends an additional 0.5 m. The pore-scale region
includes 7548 pore-scale, network models, each with dimensions of 1
1 1 cm. Therefore, the pore-scale region covers an area of 0.75 m2.
Although 7548 unique network models could have been used, for
simplicity, 40 dierent networks were repeated randomly in the
domain. All but one of the networks were mapped from computergenerated sphere packings using a Delaunay tessellation,23 and the last
network was mapped from a real sandstone,24 imaged using X-ray
microtomography. This sandstone network added heterogeneity to the
problem. The network models ranged from 400 to 40 000 pores, and
permeability ranged from 1 107 to 9 105 cm2. In all, the porescale region in the simulations contains 3075 million pores. The

Ndof

pi =

jj
j=1

(1)

where p is the spatially varying pressure, Ndof is the number of degrees

of freedom, and is the piecewise basis function. Dening the
constants ( values) gives the pressure eld over the entire network
face. The pressure eld is then projected onto the network model;
pressure at the boundary pores at given spatial locations can be
calculated from the boundary pressure eld (eq 1). The network
model can then be solved using these boundary pore pressures.
The multiscale simulator is able to solve subdomains independently
and eciently while ensuring continuity of pressures and uxes
between the subdomains. Mortars are coarse nite-element spaces that
glue the subdomains together to ensure continuity, in a weak niteelement sense. The mathematical details are summarized in several
references,18,20,11 but to summarize, the coecients of the basis
functions in eq 1 are guessed, the subdomains are solved using this
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boundary condition, the jump in uxes across the mortar space is

computed, and then the coecients are iterated upon until the ux
jump is 0 (or below a predetermined tolerance). For linear problems,
such as this one, only one iteration is required. Mortars have been
successfully used to couple continuum models to continuum
models,18,20 pore-scale models to pore-scale models,11,13 and porescale models to continuum models.11 The advantage of the mortars
here is that one can model a pore-scale region orders-of-magnitude
larger (3075 million pores and 0.75 m2) than previously investigated
and directly substitute and couple it with a conventional, nitedierence reservoir simulator.
2.2. Upscaling. The multiscale simulator is unique and has the
capability to capture complex heterogeneity and model unique ow
and transport physics at the pore scale without the loss of information
via upscaling. Nonetheless, the simulation is computationally
demanding (the pore-scale region alone has up to 75 million
unknowns). Ultimately, upscaling may need to be performed, so
that simulations can be conducted more eciently. We propose two
types of upscaling: a priori, direct upscaling and a posteriori, global
upscaling. The two approaches are compared to the full, multiscale
solution.
Upscaling of pore-scale models is usually performed in the
following, direct fashion: a constant pressure gradient is imposed in
one direction; no-ow or periodic boundary conditions are imposed in
the other two directions; and macroscopic properties (e.g.,
permeability) are back-calculated from the resulting Darcy velocity
using a macroscopic model (e.g., Darcys law). Here, we have
performed these calculations for all 40 networks in two directions;
therefore, directionally dependent, diagonal permeability tensors are
obtained and then inserted into the nite-dierence reservoir grid in
place of the network models. Note that ow eects of surrounding
media are not included in the boundary conditions because no
coupling between models is used. This a priori, direct upscaling is the
usual approach to extract macroscopic properties from pore-scale
simulations.2,4,9,25
A second upscaling approach is employed and investigated here,
one that involves a posteriori upscaling and better accounts for the
impact of surrounding media. The a posteriori upscaling is a global
upscaling approach.26 That is, once the full, multiscale simulator is
solved, the permeability of each individual network model is backcalculated from the resulting ow and pressure boundary conditions

Kx , ij =

K y , ij =

solution for steady-state, radial ow around a well. The wellknown solution is given as
P(r ) = Pw + (P0 Pw )

Figure 2. Comparison between hybrid, multiscale solution using

uniform, homogeneous, and isotropic networks and the analytical
solution for radial ow (eq 4).

(2)

3.2. Homogeneous Pore-Scale Region. Simulations

(case II) were performed for a relatively homogeneous porescale region, but with dierent networks scattered throughout.
All of the networks used were mapped from computer-based,
unconsolidated sphere packings, and the sandstone was not
used. The models may represent loose sand or granular media.
The networks still exhibit some pore-scale heterogeneity but
are signicantly more homogeneous than the sandstone
network.
The pressure eld obtained from the multiscale, near-well
model from simulation case II is presented in Figure 3. The
colored points in the near-well region represent pore pressures
from the pore-scale models (size of the points is arbitrary, and
white space is shown because pores are discrete), and the
pressures in the outer region represent pressure values of
continuum grids. The pressure and ux elds obtained from the
multiscale model are compared to the two upscaling
approaches (direct upscaling of the nite-dierence model
and the a posteriori, global upscaling model).
The comparison of the pressure (Figure 3) and ow elds
(Figure 4) suggests that the direct upscaling approach produces
a good approximation to the multiscale simulation. This is
further veried in the quantitative comparison of various

qy , ijy
Apy , ij

(4)

where P(r) is the pressure at some radius r, Pw and P0 are the

boundary pressures at the well and outer boundary,
respectively, and rw and r0 represent the radius of the well
and outer boundary, respectively.
The hybrid solution was performed using 7548 identical,
relatively homogeneous, and isotropic pore-networks (case I)
derived from uniform sphere packings (direct upscaled
permeability = 1.05 105 cm2). The continuum-scale region
had the same permeability. As shown in Figure 2, the hybrid
solution matches very well with the analytical solution. The
relative error (L2 norm) between the analytical and hybrid
pressure solution is 0.04%.

qx , ijx
Apx , ij

log(r /rw )
log(r0/rw )

(3)

where qx,ij and px,ij are the ow and pressure drop along the x
direction extracted from the multiscale model for the ijth network
model. The boundary pressures (used to compute p) on the network
were computed by taking a weighted average of the nodal pressures on
the mortar interface grid. In contrast to direct upscaling, where Kx and
Ky are estimated a priori for the 40 repeated network models, 7548 sets
of Kx and Ky are estimated from the a posteriori, global upscaling
approach.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The pressure and ux elds obtained from the multiscale
simulator are compared to the two upscaling approaches (a
priori, direct upscaling and a posteriori, global upscaling). The
results are presented in the form of pressure contours,
quantitative pressure proles along four major angles, ow
contours, and total production rates (ow rate into the well).
3.1. Validation with Analytical Solution. The hybrid,
multiscale simulation was rst veried against the analytical
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Figure 3. Pressure prole of simulation case II derived from three approaches: (a) multiscale, (b) direct upscaling, and (c) a posteriori, global
upscaling. Note that, in panel a, the points represent pore pressure in the pore-scale models. The pressure unit is Pa.

Figure 4. Flow eld of simulation case II derived from three approaches: (a) multiscale, (b) direct upscaling, and (c) a posteriori, global upscaling.
Units are m3/s.

Figure 5. Pressure prole for simulation case II at four angles around the well, 0, 90, 180, and 270, from the positive x axis extracted from the
three models. The solid line indicates the direct upscaling model; the dashed line indicates the a posteriori, global upscaling model; and the black
points represent the multiscale model. Note that, in this simulation, pressures from all three models closely match each other. The pressure unit is
Pa.

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Figure 6. Pressure prole of simulation case III derived from three approaches: (a) multiscale, (b) direct upscaling, and (c) a posteriori, global
upscaling. Note that the direct upscaling model yields more pressure drop in the pore-scale subdomain compared to the multiscale model and global
upscaling model. The pressure unit is Pa.

Figure 7. Flow eld of simulation case III derived from three approaches: (a) multiscale, (b) direct upscaling, and (c) a posteriori, global upscaling.
Units are m3/s.

Figure 8. Flow rate dierence between (a) the multiscale simulator and the direct upscaling approach and (b) the multiscale simulator and the a
posteriori, global upscaling approach in case III. Note that the scale is logarithmic. Units are m3/s.

where stronger pore-scale heterogeneity is incorporated, the

direct upscaling result shows strong discrepancy with respect to
the multiscale simulation.
3.3. Heterogeneous Pore-Scale Region. The last
simulations (case III) were performed by using the much
more heterogeneous sandstone. It was randomly repeated 4500
times (60% of the networks), and the remaining 39 sphere-pack
networks comprised the remaining 3000 pore-scale subdomains.
Figures 6 and 7 show the pressure and ux, respectively,
around the well obtained from the three simulation approaches.

pressure proles (Figure 5) at four angles from the horizontal

(0, 90, 270, and 360). This observation suggests that direct
upscaling can be accurate for single-phase, Newtonian ow if
the pore-scale models are relatively homogeneous and
isotropic. The a posteriori, global upscaling approach also
successfully reproduces the multiscale model results. The
advantage of upscaling is that, once upscaled permeabilities are
computed, continuum simulations can be performed, which are
much less computationally expensive than the multiscale model.
Quantitatively, both upscaling methods resulted in less than 1%
error in well production rates. However, in later examples,
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Figure 9. Pressure prole for simulation case III at four angles around the well, 0, 90, 180, and 270, from the positive x axis extracted from the
three models. The solid line indicates the direct upscaling model; the dashed line indicates the a posteriori, global upscaling model; and the black
points represent the multiscale model. The pressure unit is Pa.

Figure 10. Permeabilities (cm2) of each network obtained from the two upscaling approaches for case III. The red triangles represent direct
upscaling permeability, and the blue dots represent permeabilities obtained from the a posteriori, global upscaling approach.

permeability for the pore-scale region. The ow paths, however,

are captured well by the global upscaling approach (Figure 7c),
and nearly identical ux elds are depicted. This is further
conrmed by Figure 8, which depicts the error (dierence in
ux for multiscale solution and upscaled solution). Quantitatively, the a posteriori method underestimates production by
only 4%, while the a priori method did so by over 40%.
The pressure prole (Figure 9) obtained by the a posteriori,
global upscaling approach (blue lines) closely matches at the
four selected angles (0, 90, 270, and 360) to the multiscale
simulation (black points), suggesting that global upscaling
accurately reproduces the multiscale model results.
The upscaled permeabilities for case III are summarized in
Figure 10. In this gure, the x axis represents the network index

The a posteriori, global upscaling approach (Figure 6c)

produces similar results as the multiscale model (Figures 6a).
However, the direct upscaling approach (Figure 6b) overestimated the pressure drop in the pore-scale region
(permeability, on average, is underestimated). The simplied
boundary conditions employed may be signicantly dierent
from those obtained by coupling to surrounding media.
Figure 7 provides the ow contour plots obtained from the
three approaches. A few high ow paths are observed in the
pore-scale region for the full, multiscale simulation (Figure 7a).
They can also be observed in the direct upscaled solution
(Figure 7b), but the ow values are signicantly smaller than
those in the multiscale simulation. This observation also
conrms that the direct upscaling underestimated the
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Figure 11. Histograms for 2 of the 40 networks used in the simulations (one homogeneous, sphere pack network and the other, the sandstone
network) for both the x and y directions. Panels a and b show the permeability histogram for the heterogeneous sandstone network. Panels c and d
show the permeability histogram for a relative homogeneous uniform sphere pack network. The histograms are overlaid with direct upscaled
permeability (indicated by the dark line) and the geometric mean of the globally upscaled permeability (indicated by the gray line).

well region, preferential ow paths will form as wormholes are

created in the pore space. This is a pore-scale phenomenon by
nature; proper modeling requires reaction with the grain space
to form expanded pore channels.27 The prediction of wormhole
growth and resulting permeability improvement would be
dicult (or impossible) to model at the continuum scale. NonDarcy, Forchheimer ow is another near-well application that
may require detailed pore-scale modeling. Some studies4
suggest that a macroscopic model may not suce for modeling
these high-velocity ows. Injection of CO2 in sequestration
strategies and hydrocarbon production in heterogeneous,
damaged formations may also benet from a hybrid simulator.
Mortars are a critical component to the feasibility of this
hybrid simulator. It is unlikely that a pore-network model could
be created, much less solved, for the size investigated here (tens
of millions of pores and nearly a square meter in area). The
mortar method allows for the pore-scale region to be
decomposed and solved in small, manageable parts. This is
an advantage even on a single processor but would be most
ecient in a parallel computing environment because this is
nearly an embarrassingly parallel problem. The coarse, interface
problem used to ensure continuity is fast compared to the
subdomain problems; therefore, each subdomain (or a group of
subdomains) could be sent to an individual processor.
The simulator is not without limitations. Here, the pore-scale
region is 0.75 m2 in area, but the pore-scale models are

and the y axis represents the eective, upscaled permeability

values. Because the a posteriori approach incorporates the
impact of surrounding media, multiple permeability values are
obtained for the same network at dierent locations in the
reservoir. Rather than one single value, the globally-upscaled
permeabilities span over 2 orders of magnitude for most of the
network models, which also veries that an accurate upscaled
permeability may be signicantly aected by the neighbors/
boundary conditions in addition to the pore-scale model itself.
In particular, when heterogeneous network samples are present
at complex ow conditions (i.e., nonlinear dominant ow
region), the permeabilities vary signicantly.
Figure 11 shows histograms for 2 of the 40 networks used in
the simulations (one homogeneous, sphere pack network and
the other, the sandstone network) for both the x and y
directions. The direct, upscaled permeability matches well with
the geometric mean of the global, upscaled permeability for the
more homogeneous network. However, a larger discrepancy is
observed for the heterogeneous (sandstone) network sample,
which partially explains the error obtained using direct
upscaling.
3.4. Discussion of Applications. The hybrid, multiscale
simulator developed here is demonstrated for simple physics
(single-phase, single-component ow). The real use of this type
of simulator will likely be for more nonlinear and dynamic
ows. For example, if acids are injected to stimulate the near5834

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relatively large (1 cm3 as opposed to 1 mm3). Likewise, the

continuum blocks are of the same size and very small compared
to nite-dierence grids used in conventional simulators. In
practice, levels of mesh renement in the continuum region of
the simulator might be required, where the pore-scale region is
coupled to the ne-scale continuum region, which is then
coupled to a coarser continuum region. The simulator would
also become very computationally dicult if extended to 3D.
Computational eciency was not a focus of this study, but
future work will investigate and optimize 3D, time-dependent
simulations in a parallel computing environment.
Upscaling (a priori) to a conventional nite-dierence grid is
ideal and circumvents the need for hybrid simulation. However,
we showed that signicant inaccuracies can result because
surrounding ow behavior, manifested in the form of boundary
conditions, aects ow in the pore-scale models. One
alternative is to use the a posteriori upscaled result. Although
the multiscale simulation must be performed, it needs to be
performed only once, and a permeability eld is extracted for
future simulations. Another option might involve solving each
pore-scale model by coupling to a few surrounding subdomains
(to provide boundary conditions), instead of the entire domain
at once. This would be analogous to a localglobal
upscaling2830 approach used in reservoir simulation. Suitable
boundary conditions on a subset encompassing the subdomain
might be estimated on the basis of the geographic location of
the models with respect to the entire domain and its
surrounding neighbors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This material is based upon work supported as part of the

Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security, an Energy
Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy, Oce of Science, Oce of Basic Energy Sciences
under Award Number DE-SC0001114.

NOMENCLATURE
K = permeability (L2)
p = pressure (F/L2)
q = ow rate (L3/T)
r = radius (L)
N = number of pores in the pore-scale model
Ndof = number of degrees of freedom on mortar space
= coecients of mortar basis functions
= basis functions used in mortar space
= viscosity (F L2 T1)
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4. CONCLUSION
A hybrid, multiscale sub-surface simulator has been developed
that allows for direct substitution of pore-scale models for ne,
continuum-scale grids. Here, a pore-scale region of over 7500
pore-scale network models was inserted around a well and
coupled to an outer continuum scale region. Continuity of
pressure and ux between subdomains was ensured using niteelement mortars. Pore-level heterogeneity was captured, which
would not be possible using a conventional, continuum
simulator. Although network models were used in this work,
other pore-scale approaches (e.g., Lattice Boltzmann) could be
employed.
A priori, direct upscaling can lead to inaccuracies for
heterogeneous media in pressure and ux elds because the
boundary conditions are arbitrary and do not reect ow in
surrounding media. However, an a posteriori, global approach
showed that upscaled permeabilities were dependent upon the
boundary conditions and resulted in a good approximation to
the multiscale solution, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
The simulator could be extended to model more nonlinear,
dynamic ows that require pore-level modeling. Examples
include the injection of carbon dioxide in sequestration
strategies, non-Darcy ow, or matrix stimulation with acids.
Future work should focus on these time-dependent applications
and optimize computational eciency in a parallel computing
environment.

Article

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*Telephone: 512-471-3246. Fax: 512-471-4605. E-mail:

balho@mail.utexas.edu.
Notes

The authors declare no competing nancial interest.

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NOTE ADDED AFTER ASAP PUBLICATION

This paper published August 13, 2012 without the Acknowledgments section. The correct version published August 20,
2012.

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