MeshVoro: A three-dimensional Voronoi mesh building tool for the TOUGH family of codes

Abstract

Few tools exist for creating and visualizing complex three-dimensional simulation meshes,and these have limitations that restrict their application to particular geometries and circumstances. Mesh generation needs to trend toward evermore general applications. To that end,we have developed Mesh Voro, a tool that is based on the Voroþþ (Chris H. Rycroft,2009. Chaos19,041111)library and is capable of generating complex three dimensional Voro noitessellation-based(unstructured)meshes for the solution of problems of flow and transport in subsurface geologic media that are addressed by the TOUGH (Pruess,K.,Oldenbur gC.,Moridis G.,1999.ReportLBNL43134,582.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,Berkeley,CA)family of codes. MeshVoro,which includes built-in data visualization routines, is a particularly useful tool because it extends the applicability of the TOUGH family of codes by enabling the scientifically robust and relatively easy discretization of systems with challenging3Dgeometries. We describe several applications of MeshVoro. We illustrate the ability of the tool to straight forwardly transform a complex geological grid in to a simulation mesh that conforms to the specifications of the TOUGH family of codes. We demonstrate how MeshVoro can describe complex system geometries with a relatively small number of gridblocks, and we construct meshes for geometries that would have been practically intractable with a standard Cartesian gridapproach. We also discuss the limitations and appropriate applications of this new technology.