Journal
MATHEMATICAL GEOLOGY
Volume 36, Issue 2, Pages 217-238Publisher
SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1023/B:MATG.0000020471.33189.8c
Keywords
unsteady unsaturated flow; finite elements; heterogeneous soils
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This work presents the application of a Monte Carlo simulation method to perform an statistical analysis of transient variably saturated flow in an hypothetical random porous media. For each realization of the stochastic soil parameters entering as coefficients in Richards' flow equation, the pressure head and the flow field are computed using a mixed finite element procedure for the spatial discretization combined with a backward Euler and a modified Picard iteration in time. The hybridization of the mixed method provides a novel way for evaluating hydraulic conductivity on interelement boundaries. The proposed methodology can handle both large variability and fractal structure in the hydraulic parameters. The saturated conductivity K-s and the shape parameter alpha(vg) in the van Genuchten model are treated as stochastic fractal functions known as fractional Brownian motion (fBm) or fractional Gaussian noise (fGn). The statistical moments of the pressure head, water content, and flow components are obtained by averaging realizations of the fractal parameters in Monte Carlo fashion. A numerical example showing the application of the proposed methodology to characterize groundwater flow in highly heterogeneous soils is presented.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available