A three-dimensional boundary element method for steady unsaturated quasi-linear flow in porous media

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · Water Resources Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/94WR00753· OSTI ID:6916966

Subia, S R; Ingber, M S ^[1]; Martinez, M J ^[2]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

A three-dimension boundary element method is developed to study unsaturated groundwater flows in heterogeneous porous media. The method is based on the Kirchhoff transformation of variables which transforms the nonlinear Richards equation into the Fokker-Planck equation. Several benchmark problems are considered involving cavity infiltration exclusion to demonstrate the reliability of the boundary element formulation. As an example application problem, the effective conductivity of a porous medium containing randomly positioned impermeable spherical inclusions is considered. 22 refs., 7 figs., 6 tabs.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 6916966
• Journal Information: Water Resources Research; (United States), Vol. 30:7; ISSN 0043-1397
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD
RELIABILITY
GROUND WATER
FLUID FLOW
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
FLOW MODELS
ROCKS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
CALCULATION METHODS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
WATER
540220* - Environment
Terrestrial- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
990200 - Mathematics & Computers