Application of boundary-fitted coordinate (BFC) transformations to groundwater flow and transport modeling

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5298030

Lee, K K

A numerical method is presented to simulate groundwater flow and transport using the Boundary-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) systems approach initially developed for aerodynamics. An irregularly-shaped physical domain is transformed to a simple computational domain with uniform grids. Governing equations defined in the physical domain are transformed into the computational domain, wherein all transformed equations are solved by the Finite Difference Method (FDM). This study developed three FORTRAN 77 computer programs: (1) BFCGW, which simulates groundwater flow and transport, (2) SEEPAGE, which simulates free-surface and seepage face, and (3) Q3D, which simulates multi-layered flow. A series of plotting programs using [open quotes]DISSPLA,[close quotes] an IBM FORTRAN graphics package, was also developed to plot grid lines, contour lines, and flow vectors in an irregularly-shaped physical domain with non-uniform grids. Each of the three programs was verified by solving an idealized problem for which the analytical solution was known and/or a realistic problem for which field measurements could be obtained. The computer program BFCGW was employed to simulate an idealized well flow in a triangular physical domain and actual groundwater flows in the area of West Lafayette, Indiana. The numerical solutions in both cases closely matched the analytical solutions and/or numerical simulations by other computer codes such as AQUA and MODFLOW. The program BFCGW performs rotation and stretching of local coordinates prior to BFC transformations to simulate heterogeneous and anisotropic groundwater flow. The rotation and stretching technique simplifies transformed governing equations of anisotropic groundwater flow. With the program BFCGW, the groundwater flow and the transport equations are solved sequentially to simulate solute concentration distributions.

• Research Organization: Purdue Univ., Lafayette, IN (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5298030
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540210* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
BOUNDARY-VALUE PROBLEMS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
FLUID FLOW
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SIMULATION
WATER