The virtual element method for Discrete Fracture Network flow and transport simulations

We discuss several issues concerning the application of the Virtual Element Method (VEM) to the flow in fractured media modeled by the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) model. Due to the stochastic nature of the computational domains, several geometrical complexities make the computations very challenging. The geometrical flexibility provided by the Virtual Element Method can be exploited to mutually couple local problems, either by resorting to a Mortar approach, or by allowing for the global conformity of the local meshes, while keeping the computational cost under control. We describe these two approaches in detail and we test them on a realistic test case, showing the viability of the two approaches.