Three-phase compressible flow in porous media: Total Differential Compatible interpolation of relative permeabilities

We describe the construction of Total Differential (TD) three-phase data for the implementation of the exact global pressure formulation for the modeling of three-phase compressible flow in porous media. This global formulation is preferred since it reduces the coupling between the pressure and saturation equations, compared to phase or weighted formulations. It simplifies the numerical analysis of the problem and boosts its computational efficiency. However, this global pressure approach exists only for three-phase data (relative permeabilities, capillary pressures) which satisfy a TD condition. Such TD three-phase data are determined by the choice of a global capillary pressure function and a global mobility function, which take both saturations and global pressure level as argument. Boundary conditions for global capillary pressure and global mobility are given such that the corresponding three-phase data are consistent with a given set of three two-phase data. The numerical construction of global capillary pressure and global mobility functions by C 1 and C 0 finite element is then performed using bi-Laplacian and Laplacian interpolation. Examples of the corresponding TD three-phase data are given for a compressible and an incompressible case.