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U.S. Department of Energy
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Boundary-conforming coordinate system for groundwater and contaminant transport modeling

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5004150

In order to understand the behavior of flow and contaminant transport in heterogeneous porous media with semipermeable clay lenses, a conceptual two-dimensional mathematical model has been developed. The model is based on Darcy's law, the groundwater continuity equation, and the advection-dispersion transport equation. To deal with the existence of arbitrarily shaped clay lenses, the numerical grid generation techniques and the boundary-conforming coordinate system are applied to the modeling. A weighted finite-difference scheme is used to discretize the partial differential equations, and the SIP and SOR methods are used to solve the system of difference equations. The model has been verified by analytical solutions and applied to two hypothetical cases. From the analysis of numerical solutions, the influence of locations and intensity of heterogeneity on the contaminant transport has been observed. The patterns of the velocity field and the contaminant transport in a heterogeneous medium with clay lenses are different from the patterns in a homogeneous medium. Therefore, the numerical grid generation techniques and the boundary-conforming coordinate transformation system are considered to be feasible tools to solve the groundwater flow and contaminant equations in a heterogeneous medium with semipermeable clay lenses.

Research Organization:
Mississippi State Univ., State College, MS (United States)
OSTI ID:
5004150
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English