  We are concerned with central differencing schemes for solving scalar
hyperbolic conservation laws arising in the simulation of multiphase flows in
heterogeneous porous media. We compare the Kurganov-Tadmor, 2000 semi-discrete
central scheme with the Nessyahu-Tadmor, 1990 central scheme. The KT scheme
uses more precise information about the local speeds of propagation together
with integration over nonuniform control volumes, which contain the Riemann
fans. These methods can accurately resolve sharp fronts in the fluid
saturations without introducing spurious oscillations or excessive numerical
diffusion. We first discuss the coupling of these methods with velocity fields
approximated by mixed finite elements. Then, numerical simulations are
presented for two-phase, two-dimensional flow problems in multi-scale
heterogeneous petroleum reservoirs. We find the KT scheme to be considerably
less diffusive, particularly in the presence of high permeability flow
channels, which lead to strong restrictions on the time step selection;
however, the KT scheme may produce incorrect boundary behavior.
