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FEMLAB® Earth Science Module takes
multiphysics modeling outdoors
BURLINGTON, MA (November 1, 2004) — The earth and planets make a brilliant laboratory, filled with unlimited physical processes that function alone or interact in complex patterns. The Earth Science Module of FEMLAB sets up easy-to-use scientific modeling software for scientists, engineers, and students to investigate geophysical processes. The Earth Science module provides interfaces for a number of fundamental physics tuned explicitly to geologic investigation. The researcher in front of the computer decides which physics are important in a problem. The module prompts for information, sets up the math, and FEMLAB solves the code. Says Roger Thunvik of the Royal Institute of Technology KTH, “Modeling with the Earth Science Module you feel as nimble as a gazelle. By comparison, working with other software codes is like herding a team of bull elephants.”
Poroelasticity and ground compaction, a migrating chain of pesticides and daughter products, fluids that creep through the soil and
exit as fast free flow in a well, electrokinetics in a volcano, stimulating fluid movement, heat generated by radioactive decay, phase
changes, endothermic reactions, gravity anomalies on Mars. Each of these physical processes behaves in ways that one or more partial
differential equations will predict. Why FEMLAB can address all of these problems and more owes to the common thread that runs through
them all — under each of these problems is one or more partial differential equations. Since FEMLAB is designed especially to solve
systems of highly general partial differential equations, it sees each of these physics as a particular version of the template it is
tuned to solve.
Nimble tool to predict the fate and transport of pollution
Major application areas for the new Earth Science Module include environmental, flow, and well analyses. What is the extent and magnitude of pollutants? Where will the contaminants go? Is it dangerous? What is best method to clean it up? To find the answers, one may need to predict the movement of a contaminant that trickles through the soil and travels with moving fluids, perhaps exiting to a stream. The chemical may generate heat, spread through cracks, produce electrochemical effects, and move between multiple liquid and solid phases for example. The set ups in the Earth Science Module work for regional problems and also zoom in tightly on micro processes.
Roger Thunvik and his student Robinah Kulabako of the University Makerere in Kampala are using FEMLAB in their work on peri-urban contamination in Uganda.
An expert in
environmental modeling, Thunvik has written or worked with specialized codes to examine disposal of radioactive waste, oil
confinement in fractured media, and groundwater vulnerability assessment to name a few. According to Thunvik, "FEMLAB gives a
fast accurate solution and also allows you to innovate and adjust in real time. You can make modifications and learn from them
in minutes, even the type that would mean major structural overhauls if not starting over in your own code or another packaged
software".
Precision analyses for flow to wells
Another important application area for the Earth Science Module is assessing the productivity of reservoirs. With flow to a well, at issue often is clogging of pores with solid particles and microbes, impacts of wellbore storage, flow of multiple immiscible fluids, and closure of fractures. Here flow physics often link with electromagnetics and solid deformation. Vladimir Grechka of Shell Exploration and Production uses FEMLAB to predict how petroleum reservoirs compact when fluids are extracted and how that deformation changes the way that the different fluids move to the well a concept termed poroelasticity. He also uses FEMLAB to assess elastic properties of fractured rocks. Asserts Grechka, "You can use FEMLAB to answer questions that you cannot even formulate within the framework of most existing codes."Working in FEMLAB is straightforward. It comes with an easy-to-use graphical interface and advanced design tools that allow users to set up problems in 1D, 2D and 3D on one or more geometries. FEMLAB offers seamless coupling to MATLAB® so problems also can be set up strictly from the command line, without pointing and clicking. The user can stick to predefined physics or can create new equations from general templates. It includes versatile tools for viewing and comparing results from simulations including graphics for arbitrary perspectives and free reign to create, view, analyze, and export any equation or variable the user enters. With a recent development emphasis on computational performance, FEMLAB offers a suite of high-performance state-of-the-art solvers, so the accuracy, speed, and memory efficiency compares well with single physics packages.