Simulation of Geologic Carbon Sequestration in Faulted Poroelastic Media

Summary This work presents how coupled flow and mechanics in faulted formations is modeled within the open-source GEOS simulation framework. Faults are treated as lower-dimensional manifolds, with a mesh conforming to these features. We employ a low-order finite element method for mechanics coupled to a two-point flux finite-volume method for flow. To ensure inf-sup stability, bubble functions are added to the displacement space. The nonlinear coupled system, including frictional contact, is solved using the Augmented Lagrange method, which provides significant advantages over traditional approaches. We will discuss the discretization and solution strategies and present numerical results that demonstrate the robustness and real-world applicability of the method.