A data-driven proxy to Stoke's flow in porous media

Abstract

The objective for this work is to develop a data-driven proxy to high-fidelity numerical flow simulations using digital images. The proposed model can capture the flow field and permeability in a large verity of digital porous media based on solid grain geometry and pore size distribution by detailed analyses of the local pore geometry and the local flow fields. To develop the model, the detailed pore space geometry and simulation runs data from 3500 two-dimensional high-fidelity Lattice Boltzmann simulation runs are used to train and to predict the solutions with a high accuracy in much less computational time. The proposed methodology harness the enormous amount of generated data from high-fidelity flow simulations to decode the often under-utilized patterns in simulations and to accurately predict solutions to new cases. The developed model can truly capture the physics of the problem and enhance prediction capabilities of the simulations at a much lower cost. These predictive models, in essence, do not spatio-temporally reduce the order of the problem. They, however, possess the same numerical resolutions as their Lattice Boltzmann simulations equivalents do with the great advantage that their solutions can be achieved by significant reduction in computational costs (speed and memory).