The PICNN-Assisted Physics-Preserving Scheme for Thermodynamically Consistent Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a physics-informed convolutional neural network (PICNN) assisted physics-preserving method for a thermodynamically consistent model of incompressible and immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. Following the physics-preserving prediction-correction scheme of Li et al. \cite{li2025class}, the prediction step is performed by a PICNN trained with finite-volume residuals, where the interfacial fluxes are evaluated by the two-point flux approximation (TPFA) using two-point difference quotients of neighboring cell-centered unknowns to approximate interfacial normal gradients. The PICNN output is further corrected by a post-processing procedure to obtain energy-stable, mass-conservative, and bounds-preserving solutions. Numerical results show that the finite-volume residuals trained PICNN can replace the traditional prediction solver within the physics-preserving framework. Compared with conventional physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), the PICNN better captures local spatial interactions between each control volume and its neighboring cells, while the finite-volume residuals accommodate discontinuous permeability fields and interfacial flux continuity.