Applicability of a sharp-interface model for estimating steady-state salinity at pumping wells-validation against sand tank experiments

A numerical sharp-interface model of saltwater and freshwater behavior was validated against experiments conducted in two small scale sand tanks. A simple algorithm was proposed to determine saltwater and freshwater withdrawal rates at a pumping well at which a total pumping rate was specified. Model estimates were compared with transient salinity breakthroughs and steady-state salinities of water extracted from pumping wells in the sand tanks. Experimental scenarios included various combinations of freshwater pumping and injection and saltwater pumping. The corresponding Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency was 0.95, which showed that the agreement between observations and computed results was satisfactory. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.