On the impact of heterogeneity-aware mesh partitioning and non-contributing computation removal on parallel reservoir simulations

Abstract Parallel computations have become standard practice for simulating the complicated multi-phase flow in a petroleum reservoir. Increasingly sophisticated numerical techniques been developed this context. During chase of algorithmic superiority, however, there is risk forgetting ultimate goal, namely, to efficiently simulate real-world reservoirs on realistic parallel hardware platforms. In paper, we quantitatively analyse negative performance impact caused by non-contributing that are associated with “ghost computational cells” per subdomain, which an insufficiently studied subject reservoir simulation. We also show how these can be avoided reordering cells each such ghost grouped together. Moreover, propose new graph-edge weighting scheme improve mesh partitioning quality, aiming at balance between handling heterogeneity geological properties and restricting communication overhead. To put study setting, enhance open-source Flow simulator from OPM framework, provide comparisons industrial-standard simulators models.