Abstract
The recent development of the TOUGH3 code allows for a faster and more reliable fluid flow simulator. At the same time, new versions of FLAC3D are released periodically, allowing for new features and faster execution. In this paper, we present the first implementation of the coupling between TOUGH3 and FLAC3Dv6/7, maintaining parallel computing capabilities for the coupled fluid flow and geomechanical codes. We compare the newly developed version with analytical solutions and with the previous approach, and provide some performance analysis on different meshes and varying the number of running processors. Finally, we present two case studies related to fault reactivation during CO2 sequestration and nuclear waste disposal. The use of parallel computing allows for meshes with a larger number of elements, and hence more detailed understanding of thermo-hydro-mechanical processes occurring at depth.
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Acknowledgments
The research was funded by a research agreement between ENSI and SED and by a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Ambizione Energy research grant (PZENP2_160555). Funding for LBNL was provided by the Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition Campaign, Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. DOE, under Contract Number DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors are grateful to Michael Ruthenberg and the BenVaSim community for useful discussions. Comments from two anonymous reviewers helped improving the paper.
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Rinaldi, A.P., Rutqvist, J., Luu, K. et al. TOUGH3-FLAC3D: a modeling approach for parallel computing of fluid flow and geomechanics. Comput Geosci 26, 1563–1580 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-022-10176-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-022-10176-0