Analysis of conforming, non-matching, and polygonal methods for Darcy and advection-diffusion-reaction simulations in discrete fracture networks

Abstract: The aim of this study is to compare numerical methods for the simulation of single-phase flow and transport in fractured media, described here by means of the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) model. A Darcy problem is solved to compute the advective field, then used in a subsequent time dependent transport-diffusion-reaction problem. The numerical schemes are benchmarked in terms of flexibility in handling geometrical complexity, mass conservation and stability issues for advection dominated flow regimes. To this end, three benchmark cases have been specifically designed and are here proposed, representing some of the most critical issues encountered in DFN simulations.