Groundwater flow modeling by two free mesh approach

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Arman Mohammadi, Mahnaz Ghaeini-Hessaroeyeh

Thursday 2 july 2015

9:00 - 9:15h at Oceania (level 0)

Themes: (T) Water engineering, (ST) Computational methods

Parallel session: 10E. Engineering - Computational

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Details are given herein of the development and application of analytic element and point collocation mesh free methods to predict groundwater flow in an unconfined aquifer. The analytic element method is essentially a kind of the superposition techniques. This method uses the exact analytic functions and it does not need mesh-dependent interpolation functions. In point collocation method, some points are distributed on computational domain and the shape functions are created in order to solve governing equation. The flow models are applied for groundwater modeling in Astaneh-Kouchesfahan plain located between Tehran and southern basin of the Caspian Sea in north part of Iran. This Plain is one of the most important resources of groundwater in the province of Gilan and the field data of this plain is available. PSO algorithm is used for calibration of flow models. Correlation coefficient between the field data and analytic element model result is equal to 0.89. After sensitivity analysis correlation coefficient between the field data and point collocation model result is equal to 0.85. One reason for the better results of the analytical element method is using exact analytical functions and exerts influence on the hydrological characteristics of groundwater flow directly. It can be increased accuracy of results in point collocation method by increasing the number of points covering the model, but it has a direct relation with the complexity and calculated time.