Model coupling for multiphase flow in porous media

Numerical models for flow and transport in porous media are valid for a particular set of processes, scales, levels of simplification and abstraction, grids etc. The coupling of two or more specialised models is a method of increasing the overall range of validity while keeping the computational costs relatively low. Several coupling concepts are reviewed in this article with a focus on the authors’ work in this field. The concepts are divided into temporal and spatial coupling concepts, of which the latter is subdivided into multi-process, multi-scale, multi-dimensional, and multi-compartment coupling strategies. Examples of applications for which these concepts can be relevant include groundwater protection and remediation, carbon dioxide storage, nuclear-waste disposal, soil dry-out and evaporation processes as well as fuel cells and technical filters.

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