The boundary element method is restricted to homogeneous domains and specific governing PDEs. However, in cases where it can be applied, it lowers the dimensionality of the problem by one, which can be a significant computational advantage. The BEM has proved particularly useful from modeling certain types of interfacial behavior such as the behavior of droplets in shear flows, which is important in numerous porous-media problems.

The graphics shown here include simulations of droplet coalescence during pressure-driven flow through a converging-diverging pore throat (top), Stokes flow in small sections of a much larger, heterogeneous domain (middle), and images of laminar flow in pore-throat cross sections (bottom).