Modeling Variable Density Flow and Solute Transport in Porous Medium: 2. Re‐Evaluation of the Salt Dome Flow Problem

Case 5, Level 1 of the international HYDROCOIN groundwater flow modeling project is an example of idealized flow over a salt dome. The groundwater flow is strongly coupled to solute transport since density variations in this example are large (20%).Several independent teams simulated this problem using different models. Results obtained by different codes can be contradictory. We develop a new numerical model based on the mixed hybrid finite elements approximation for flow, which provides a good approximation of the velocity, and the discontinuous finite elements approximation to solve the advection equation, which gives a good approximation of concentration even when the dispersion tensor is very small. We use the new numerical model to simulate the salt dome flow problem.In this paper we study the effect of molecular diffusion and we compare linear and nonlinear dispersion equations. We show the importance of the discretization of the boundary condition on the extent of recirculation and the final salt distribution. We study also the salt dome flow problem with a more realistic dispersion (very small dispersion tensor). Our results are different to prior works with regard to the magnitude of recirculation and the final concentration distribution. In all cases, we obtain recirculation in the lower part of the domain, even for only dispersive fluxes at the boundary. When the dispersion tensor becomes very small, the magnitude of recirculation is small. Swept forward displacement could be reproduced by using finite difference method to compute the dispersive fluxes instead of mixed hybrid finite elements.     

Modeling Variable Density Flow and Solute Transport in Porous Medium: 1. Numerical Model and Verification

A new numerical model for the resolution of density coupled flow and transport in porous media is presented. The model is based on the mixed hybrid finite elements (MHFE) and discontinuous finite elements (DFE) methods. MHFE is used to solve the flow equation and the dispersive part of the transport equation. This method is more accurate in the calculation of velocities and ensures continuity of fluxes from one element to the adjacent one. DFE is used to solve the convective part of the transport equation. Combined with a slope limiting procedure, it avoids numerical instabilities and creates a very limited numerical dispersion, even for high grid Peclet number.Flow and transport equations are coupled by a standard iterative scheme. Residual based criterion is used to stop the iterations. Simulations of an unstable equilibrium show the effects of the criteria used to stop the iterations and the stopping criterion in the solver. The effects are more important for finer grids than for coarser grids.The numerical model is verified by the simulation of standard benchmarks: the Henry and the Elder test cases. A good agreement is found between the revised semianalytical Henry solution and the numerical solution. The Elder test case was also studied. The simulations were similar to those presented in previous works but with significantly less unknowns (i.e. coarser grids). These results show the efficiency of the used numerical schemes.     

Comparison of light transmission and reflection techniques to determine concentrations in flow tank experiments

Transmissive and reflective intensity measurements for visual concentration determinations in 2D flow tank experiments were compared and evaluated for their applicability in the study of flow and transport phenomena. A density-dependent heterogeneous flow experiment was conducted and transmission and reflection images of the dyed saltwater plume were analyzed. A single light source and dark curtains forced the light to pass through the porous media only, thus facilitating the transmission measurements. The reflection images delivered a more homogeneous spatial illumination than the transmission images. Major perturbations of the transmission images were lens flare effects and light dispersion within the bead–water–Plexiglas system which smear the front of the plume. Based on the conducted evaluation of transmissive and reflective intensity measurements, the reflection data delivered more reliable intensity values to derive solute concentrations in intermediate scale flow tank experiments.     

Solution analytique pour le transfert de masse entre puits en milieu poreux hétérogèneAnalytical solution for mass transfer between wells in heterogeneous porous media

The analytical solution developed by Dagan and Indelman (Water Resources Res. 35 (12) (1999) 3639–3647) for modelling the transport of a tracer in an infinite heterogeneous porous media in a dipole flow is extended by accounting for the presence of no flow finite boundaries. The results obtained are compared to those corresponding to the infinite domain, emphasizing the important influence of the boundaries on the elution at the pumping well and the effect of the medium's heterogeneity. The analytical results are then compared to experimental data and provide good matching. To cite this article: J.-P. Carlier, P. Ackerer, C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

An Adaptive Subdivision Algorithm for the Identification of the Diffusion Coefficient in Two-dimensional Elliptic Problems

In this work, we consider the identification problem of the diffusion coef-ficient in two-dimensional elliptic equations. For parameterization, we use the zonation method: the diffusion coefficient is assumed to be a piecewise constant space function and unknowns are both the diffusion coefficient values and the geometry of the zones. An algorithm based on geometric principles is developed in order to determine the boundaries between the zones. This algorithm uses the refinement indicators which are easily computed from the gradient of the objective function. The efficiency of the algorithm is proved by testing it in some simple cases with and without noise on the data.      

Comparison of Iterative Methods for Improved Solutions of the Fluid Flow Equation in Partially Saturated Porous Media

Abstract. The Picard and modified Picard iteration schemes are often used to numerically solve the nonlinear Richards equation governing water flow in variably saturated porous media. While these methods are easy to implement, they are only linearly convergent. Another approach to solve the Richards equation is to use Newton's iterative method. This method, also known as Newton–Raphson iteration, is quadratically convergent and requires the computation of first derivatives. We implemented Newton's scheme into the mixed form of the Richards equation. As compared to the modified Picard scheme, Newton's scheme requires two additional matrices when the mixed form of the Richards equation is used and requires three additional matrices, when the pressure head-based form is used. The modified Picard scheme may actually be viewed as a simplified Newton scheme.Two examples are used to investigate the numerical performance of different forms of the 1D vertical Richards equation and the different iterative solution schemes. In the first example, we simulate infiltration in a homogeneous dry porous medium by solving both, the h based and mixed forms of Richards equation using the modified Picard and Newton schemes. Results shows that, very small time steps are required to obtain an accurate mass balance. These small times steps make the Newton method less attractive.In a second test problem, we simulate variable inflows and outflows in a heterogeneous dry porous medium by solving the mixed form of the Richards equation, using the modified Picard and Newton schemes. Analytical computation of the Jacobian required less CPU time than its computation by perturbation. A combination of the modified Picard and Newton scheme was found to be more efficient than the modified Picard or Newton scheme.     

A new refinement indicator for adaptive parameterization: Application to the estimation of the diffusion coefficient in an elliptic problem

We propose a new refinement indicator (NRI) for adaptive parameterization to determine the diffusion coefficient in an elliptic equation in two-dimensional space. The diffusion coefficient is assumed to be a piecewise constant space function. The unknowns are both the parameter values and the zonation. Refinement indicators are used to localize parameter discontinuities in order to construct iteratively the zonation (parameterization). The refinement indicator is obtained usually by using the first-order effect on the objective function of removing degrees of freedom for a current set of parameters. In this work, in order to reduce the computation costs, we propose a new refinement indicator based on the second-order effect on the objective function. This new refinement indicator depends on the objective function, and its first and second derivatives with respect to the parameter constraints. Numerical experiments show the high efficiency of the new refinement indicator compared to the standard one.