Accuracy of Galerkin finite elements for groundwater flow simulations in two and three‐dimensional triangulations

2001 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Cordes ◽  
Mario Putti
Keyword(s):  
Finite Elements ◽  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Flow Simulations

scholarly journals Three-dimensional hydrostratigraphy and groundwater flow models in complex Quaternary deposits and weathered/fractured bedrock: evaluating increasing model complexity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Charlotta Åberg ◽  
Annika Katarina Åberg ◽  
Kirsti Korkka-Niemi
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Model Complexity ◽  
Quaternary Sediments ◽  
Fractured Bedrock ◽  
Flow Models ◽  
Flow Modelling ◽  
Crystalline Bedrock ◽  
Discharge Patterns ◽  
Geological Units

AbstractGreater complexity in three-dimensional (3D) model structures yields more plausible groundwater recharge/discharge patterns, especially in groundwater/surface-water interactions. The construction of a 3D hydrostratigraphic model prior to flow modelling is beneficial when the hydraulic conductivity of geological units varies considerably. A workflow for 3D hydrostratigraphic modelling with Leapfrog Geo and flow modelling with MODFLOW-NWT was developed. It was used to evaluate how the modelling results for groundwater flow and recharge/discharge patterns differ when using simple or more complex hydrostratigraphic models. The workflow was applied to a study site consisting of complex Quaternary sediments underlain by fractured and weathered crystalline bedrock. Increasing the hydrostratigraphic detail appeared to improve the fit between the observed and simulated water table, and created more plausible groundwater flow patterns. Interlayered zones of low and high conductivity disperse the recharge/discharge patterns, increasing the vertical flow component. Groundwater flow was predominantly horizontal in models in which Quaternary sediments and bedrock were simplified as one layer per unit. It appears to be important to define the interlayered low-conductivity units, which can limit groundwater infiltration and also affect groundwater discharge patterns. Explicit modelling with Leapfrog Geo was found to be effective but time-consuming in the generation of scattered and thin-layered strata.

scholarly journals Nonlinear effects of locally heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields on regional stream–aquifer exchanges

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 4531-4545 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zhu ◽  
C. L. Winter ◽  
Z. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Effective Conductivity ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Effective Parameters ◽  
Aquifer Systems ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Local Grid

Abstract. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the effects of locally heterogeneous conductivity fields on regional exchanges of water between stream and aquifer systems in the Middle Heihe River basin (MHRB) of northwestern China. The effects are found to be nonlinear in the sense that simulated discharges from aquifers to streams are systematically lower than discharges produced by a base model parameterized with relatively coarse effective conductivity. A similar, but weaker, effect is observed for stream leakage. The study is organized around three hypotheses: (H1) small-scale spatial variations of conductivity significantly affect regional exchanges of water between streams and aquifers in river basins, (H2) aggregating small-scale heterogeneities into regional effective parameters systematically biases estimates of stream–aquifer exchanges, and (H3) the biases result from slow paths in groundwater flow that emerge due to small-scale heterogeneities. The hypotheses are evaluated by comparing stream–aquifer fluxes produced by the base model to fluxes simulated using realizations of the MHRB characterized by local (grid-scale) heterogeneity. Levels of local heterogeneity are manipulated as control variables by adjusting coefficients of variation. All models are implemented using the MODFLOW (Modular Three-dimensional Finite-difference Groundwater Flow Model) simulation environment, and the PEST (parameter estimation) tool is used to calibrate effective conductivities defined over 16 zones within the MHRB. The effective parameters are also used as expected values to develop lognormally distributed conductivity (K) fields on local grid scales. Stream–aquifer exchanges are simulated with K fields at both scales and then compared. Results show that the effects of small-scale heterogeneities significantly influence exchanges with simulations based on local-scale heterogeneities always producing discharges that are less than those produced by the base model. Although aquifer heterogeneities are uncorrelated at local scales, they appear to induce coherent slow paths in groundwater fluxes that in turn reduce aquifer–stream exchanges. Since surface water–groundwater exchanges are critical hydrologic processes in basin-scale water budgets, these results also have implications for water resources management.

Analyses of groundwater flow and plant evapotranspiration in a vegetated soil slope

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 1204-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.K. Leung ◽  
C.W.W. Ng
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Pore Water Pressure ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Soil Slopes ◽  
Transient Seepage

Understanding seasonal hydrogeological responses of vegetated soil slopes is vital to slope stability because pore-water pressure (PWP) varies from positive values upon rainfall in wet seasons to negative values upon plant evapotranspiration (ET) in dry seasons. There are, however, few case histories that report seasonal performance of vegetated soil slopes. In this study, a vegetated slope situated in Hong Kong was instrumented to analyse (i) groundwater flow during rainfall in the wet season and (ii) effects of plant ET on PWP in the dry season. Two- and three-dimensional anisotropic transient seepage analyses are conducted to identify groundwater flow mechanism(s) during a heavy rainstorm. Through water and energy balance calculations, measured plant-induced suction is interpreted with plant characteristic and climatic data. During the rainstorm, substantial recharge of the groundwater table was recorded, likely due to preferential water flow along relict joints and three-dimensional cross-slope groundwater flow. During the dry season, the peak suction induced by plant ET is up to 200 kPa and the depth of influence is shallower than 200% of the root depth. For the range of suctions monitored, root-water uptake is revealed to have been restricted by suction not very significantly and was driven mainly by the climatic variation.

Reducing Undesired Wave Reflection at Domain Boundaries in 3D Finite Volume-Based Flow Simulations via Forcing Zones

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (01) ◽  
pp. 23-47
Author(s):  
Robinson Peric ◽  
Moustafa Abdel-Maksoud
Keyword(s):  
Finite Volume ◽  
Wave Reflection ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Computational Domain ◽  
Wave Reflections ◽  
Flow Simulations ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
Domain Boundaries

This article reviews different types of forcing zones (sponge layers, damping zones, relaxation zones, etc.) as used in finite volume-based flow simulations to reduce undesired wave reflections at domain boundaries, with special focus on the case of strongly reflecting bodies subjected to long-crested incidence waves. Limitations and possible sources of errors are discussed. A novel forcing-zone arrangement is presented and validated via three-dimensional (3D) flow simulations. Furthermore, a recently published theory for predicting the forcing-zone behavior was investigated with regard to its relevance for practical 3D hydrodynamics problems. It was found that the theory can be used to optimally tune the case-dependent parameters of the forcing zones before running the simulations. 1. Introduction Wave reflections at the boundaries of the computational domain can cause significant errors in flow simulations, and must therefore be reduced. In contrast to boundary element codes, where much progress in this respect has been made decades ago (see e.g., Clement 1996; Grilli &Horillo 1997), for finite volume-based flow solvers, there are many unresolved questions, especially:How to reliably reduce reflections and disturbances from the domain boundaries?How to predict the amount of undesired wave reflection before running the simulation? This work aims to provide further insight to these questions for flow simulations based on Navier-Stokes-type equations (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes, Euler equations, Large Eddy Simulations, etc.), when using forcing zones to reduce undesired reflections. The term "forcing zones" is used here to describe approaches that gradually force the solution in the vicinity of the boundary towards some reference solution, as described in Section 2; some examples are absorbing layers, sponge layers, damping zones, relaxation zones, or the Euler overlay method (Mayer et al. 1998; Park et al. 1999; Chen et al. 2006; Choi &Yoon 2009; Jacobsen et al. 2012; Kimet al. 2012; Schmitt & Elsaesser 2015; Perić & Abdel-Maksoud 2016a; Vukčević et al. 2016).

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