An existence result for multidimensional immiscible two-phase flows with discontinuous capillary pressure field (Q2904733)

Models of immiscible two-phase flows in a porous media are often used to predict the motions of complex flows in subsoil, particularly in the frame of oil engineering. The main difficulty in their investigation is connected with degeneracy of the problem where one of the two phases vanishes.NEWLINENEWLINE In the present paper the case of an incompressible immiscible two-phase flow within a heterogeneous porous medium made of two different rock types is under consideration and the corresponding system of equations governing it is investigated. Here the capillary pressure function depends on the rock type and the capillary pressure field might be continuous at the interface between the rocks. The authors introduce the multivalued phase pressures to give a sense to the transmission conditions at the interface.NEWLINENEWLINE The existence of a solution for such a flow by passing to the limit in regularizations of the problem is proved by establishing an existence result for the solution of the system of equations governing such a flow.