Characteristic Petrov-Galerkin subdomain methods for two-phase immiscible flow (Q1085748)

A preconditioner, based on substructuring, is constructed to solve the nonlinear parabolic equation for the saturation of water. The pressure equations are solved by mixed finite element methods, which give the volumetric flow u to optimal order of approximation. The convection term is divided into two parts, \(f(S,u)=\bar f(S,u)+b(S,u)\), such that \=f gives a unique physical velocity for established shocks; \=f\(=f\) outside a shock. The nonlinear part b balances the diffusion at the shock. We treat convection by time-stepping along the characteristics of the associated pure convection problem and use Petrov-Galerkin finite element methods to model diffusion and the nonlinear term. The resulting bilinear form is unsymmetrical, but can be symmetrized by appropriate choice of trial and test functions. The resulting equation yields a symmetric elliptic bilinear form, which gives optimal approximation properties. We define a coarse grid, adequate for the slow variation of u and the characteristic solution. A substructuring of this grid is then given such that we get a proper resolution of a shock solution. A local a priori error estimate determines an area of connected coarse gridblocks, where substructuring is necessary.