A fast algorithm for the estimation of the equivalent hydraulic conductivity of heterogeneous media

Fast upscaling of hydraulic conductivity is a recurrent problem in modeling flow through heterogeneous porous media. We propose a new renormalization technique. It is based on the iterative application of the Cardwell and Par sons [1945] bounds on elementary groups of cells. The combination of the bo unds with a heuristic formula allows anisotropy to be taken into account. T he new technique is tested and compared with other fast techniques. Among t he tested techniques the two most reliable ones are the tensorial renormali zation and the new simplified renormalization. The numerical efficiency of the simplified renormalization leads us to recommend it when a diagonal ten sor of equivalent conductivity is sufficient.