A Machine Learning-Enhanced Hopf-Cole Formulation for Nonlinear Gas Flow in Porous Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel integrated framework combining a Klinkenberg-enhanced model, Hopf-Cole transformation, neural networks, and a DeepLS solver for accurate, stable, and efficient simulation and inversion of nonlinear gas flow in porous media.

Contribution

It develops a new modeling and computational approach that reformulates nonlinear flow equations into a linear form, enabling simultaneous pressure and velocity prediction and parameter inversion.

Findings

Accurately predicts pressure and velocity fields across various regimes.

Demonstrates stability and convergence of the proposed solver.

Effectively estimates flow parameters from limited data.

Abstract

Accurate modeling of gas flow through porous media is critical for many technological applications, including reservoir performance prediction, carbon capture and sequestration, and fuel cells and batteries. However, such modeling remains challenging due to strong nonlinear behavior and uncertainty in model parameters. In particular, gas slippage effects described by the Klinkenberg model introduce pressure-dependent permeability, which complicates numerical simulation and obscures deviations from classical Darcy flow behavior. To address these challenges, we present an integrated modeling framework for gas transport in porous media that combines a Klinkenberg-enhanced constitutive relation, Hopf-Cole-transformed mixed-form linear governing equations, a shared-trunk neural network architecture, and a Deep Least-Squares (DeepLS) solver. The Hopf-Cole transformation reformulates the original nonlinear flow equations into an equivalent linear system closely related to the Darcy model, while the mixed formulation, together with a shared-trunk neural architecture, enables simultaneous and accurate prediction of both pressure and velocity fields. A rigorous convergence analysis is performed both theoretically and numerically, establishing the stability and convergence properties of the proposed solver. Importantly, the proposed framework also naturally facilitates inverse modeling of pressure-dependent permeability and slippage parameters from limited or indirect observations, enabling efficient estimation of flow properties that are difficult to measure experimentally. Numerical results demonstrate accurate recovery of flow dynamics and parameters across a wide range of pressure regimes, highlighting the framework's robustness, accuracy, and computational efficiency for gas transport modeling and inversion in tight formations.