Stochastic analysis of velocity spatial variability in bounded rectangular heterogeneous aquifers

Transport of inert solutes in two-dimensional bounded heterogeneous porous media is investigated in a stochastic framework. After adopting a first-order approximation of the flow equations, analytical expressions are derived for the velocity covariances. Effects of the boundary conditions and aquifer size upon the statistical moments are analyzed. While the size of the domain is shown to have small influence on the covariances in most cases, the solutions are considerably modified by the boundaries. The results are compared with analytical solutions on infinite domains, and several discrepancies are demonstrated. For example, while the velocity variances on infinite domains are homogeneous, the present results are strongly non-stationary. Finally, the problem is solved numerically by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The results, including the behavior near the boundaries, are shown to be in close agreement with analytical solutions.     

Numerical method of moments for solute transport in a nonstationary flow field conditioned on hydraulic conductivity and head measurements

The unconditional stochastic studies on groundwater flow and solute transport in a nonstationary conductivity field show that the standard deviations of the hydraulic head and solute flux are very large in comparison with their mean values (Zhang et al. in Water Resour Res 36:2107–2120, 2000; Wu et al. in J Hydrol 275:208–228, 2003; Hu et al. in Adv Water Resour 26:513–531, 2003). In this study, we develop a numerical method of moments conditioning on measurements of hydraulic conductivity and head to reduce the variances of the head and the solute flux. A Lagrangian perturbation method is applied to develop the framework for solute transport in a nonstationary flow field. Since analytically derived moments equations are too complicated to solve analytically, a numerical finite difference method is implemented to obtain the solutions. Instead of using an unconditional conductivity field as an input to calculate groundwater velocity, we combine a geostatistical method and a method of moment for flow to conditionally simulate the distributions of head and velocity based on the measurements of hydraulic conductivity and head at some points. The developed theory is applied in several case studies to investigate the influences of the measurements of hydraulic conductivity and/or the hydraulic head on the variances of the predictive head and the solute flux in nonstationary flow fields. The study results show that the conditional calculation will significantly reduce the head variance. Since the hydraulic head measurement points are treated as the interior boundary (Dirichlet boundary) conditions, conditioning on both the hydraulic conductivity and the head measurements is much better than conditioning only on conductivity measurements for reduction of head variance. However, for solute flux, variance reduction by the conditional study is not so significant.     

Sensitivity and moment analyses of head in variably saturated regimes

A numerical approach for approximating statistical moments of hydraulic heads of variably saturated flows in multi-dimensional porous media is developed. The approximation relies on a first-order Taylor series expansion of a finite element flow model and an adjoint state numerical method for variably saturated flows to evaluate sensitivities. This approach can be employed to analyze uncertainties associated with predictions of head of steady-state or transient flows in variably saturated porous media, with any type of boundary and initial conditions. Limitations of stochastic analytical methods such as spectral/perturbation approaches and the time-consuming Monte Carlo simulation technique are thus alleviated. An example is given to demonstrate the utility of the approach and to investigate the temporal evolution of head variances in a variably saturated flow regime. Results show that the fluctuation of the water table can have significant impacts on the propagation of the head variance.     

基于比例边界有限元方法的拱坝子结构分区形式研究

比例边界有限元方法是一种半解析的数值计算方法,具有降维、网格灵活、严格模拟无限域和无需基本解等特点。比例边界有限元方法的基本理论是在整体坐标与局部坐标的比例边界转换基础之上建立的,相似中心的选取是否合理对分析计算具有重要的影响,导致在模拟拱坝这种不规则的空间壳体结构时,具有一定的局限性。采用子结构方法,将坝体分为若干满足相似性要求的区域可解决上述问题,以某拱坝为例给出了合理的坝体子结构分区形式,验证了子结构方法的精确性,为建立基于比例边界有限元方法的坝体-库水-地基系统的计算模型奠定了基础。     

A discontinuous Galerkin method for seismic wave propagation in coupled elastic and poroelastic media

Numerical simulation in coupled elastic and poroelastic media is important in oil and gas exploration. However, the interface between elastic and poroelastic media is a challenge to handle. In order to deal with the coupled model, the first-order velocity–stress wave equations are used to unify the elastic and poroelastic wave equations. In addition, an arbitrary high-order discontinuous Galerkin method is used to simulate the wave propagation in coupled elastic–poroelastic media, which achieves same order accuracy in time and space domain simultaneously. The interfaces between the two media are explicitly tackled by the Godunov numerical flux. The proposed forms of numerical flux can be used efficiently and conveniently to simulate the wave propagation at the interfaces of the coupled model and handle the absorbing boundary conditions properly. Numerical results on coupled elastic–poroelastic media with straight and curved interfaces are compared with those from a software that is based on finite element method and the interfaces are handled by boundary conditions, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed scheme in dealing with coupled elastic–poroelastic media. In addition, the proposed method is used to simulate a more complex coupled model. The numerical results show that the proposed method is feasible to simulate the wave propagation in such a media and is easy to implement.     

A generalized transformation approach for simulating steady-state variably-saturated subsurface flow

A numerical method is proposed to accurately and efficiently compute a direct steady-state solution of the nonlinear Richards equation. In the proposed method, the Kirchhoff integral transformation and a complementary transformation are applied to the governing equation in order to separate the nonlinear hyperbolic characteristic from the linear parabolic part. The separation allows the transformed governing equation to be applied to partially- to fully-saturated systems with arbitrary constitutive relations between primary (pressure head) and secondary variables (relative permeability). The transformed governing equation is then discretized with control volume finite difference/finite element approximations, followed by inverse transformation. The approach is compared to analytical and other numerical approaches for variably-saturated flow in 1-D and 3-D domains. The results clearly demonstrate that the approach is not only more computationally efficient but also more accurate than traditional numerical solutions. The approach is also applied to an example flow problem involving a regional-scale variably-saturated heterogeneous system, where the vadose zone is up to 1 km thick. The performance, stability, and effectiveness of the transform approach is exemplified for this complex heterogeneous example, which is typical of many problems encountered in the field. It is shown that computational performance can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude with the described integral transformation approach.     

Nodal domain integration model of two-dimensional advection-diffusion processes

The nodal domain integration method is applied to a two-dimensional advection-diffusion process in an anisotropic inhomogeneous medium. The domain is discretised into the union of irregular triangle finite elements with vertex-located nodal points and a linear trial function is used to approximate the governing flow equation's state variable in each element. Non-linear parameters are assumed quasi-constant for small durations in time in each element. The resulting numerical model represents the Galerkin and subdomain integration weighted residual methods and the integrated finite difference method as special cases. Both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are accommodated in a manner similar to the Galerkin finite element approach.     

A numerical method of moments for solute transport in physically and chemically nonstationary formations: linear equilibrium sorption with random K<Subscript>d</Subscript>

A Lagrangian perturbation method is applied to develop a method of moments for solute flux through a three-dimensional nonstationary flow field. The flow nonstationarity stems from medium nonstationarity and internal and external boundaries of the study domain. The solute flux is described as a space-time process where time refers to the solute flux breakthrough through a control plane (CP) at some distance downstream of the solute source and space refers to the transverse displacement distribution at the CP. The analytically derived moment equations for solute transport in a nonstationarity flow field are too complicated to solve analytically, a numerical finite difference method is implemented to obtain the solutions. This approach combines the stochastic model with the flexibility of the numerical method to boundary and initial conditions. The developed method is applied to study the effects of heterogeneity and nonstationarity of the hydraulic conductivity and chemical sorption coefficient on solute transport. The study results indicate all these factors will significantly influence the mean and variance of solute flux.     

Adaptive-grid simulation of groundwater flow in heterogeneous aquifers

The prediction of contaminant transport in porous media requires the computation of the flow velocity. This work presents a methodology for high-accuracy computation of flow in a heterogeneous isotropic formation, employing a dual-flow formulation and adaptive gridding. The dual equations, describing the hydraulic head and the streamfunction, are numerically solved through finite element approximations. The application of classic finite-element methods requires a rather large number of nodes to represent suitably the flow in high-contrast formations. We present a mesh-adaptive approach that enhances the accuracy of the numerical flow solution for a given computational effort. We rely on an a posteriori error estimator to identify areas where refinements of the finite element mesh are needed or unrefinements are acceptable. We also demonstrate through numerical experiments that the developed methodology efficiently enhances accuracy through successive mesh adaptation.     

Mixed finite element methods and higher order temporal approximations for variably saturated groundwater flow

Richards’ equation (RE) is commonly used to model flow in variably saturated porous media. However, its solution continues to be difficult for many conditions of practical interest. Among the various time discretizations applied to RE, the method of lines (MOL) has been used successfully to introduce robust, accurate, and efficient temporal approximations. At the same time, a mixed-hybrid finite element method combined with an adaptive, higher order time discretization has shown benefits over traditional, lower order temporal approximations for modeling single-phase groundwater flow in heterogeneous porous media. Here, we extend earlier work for single-phase flow and consider two mixed finite element methods that have been used previously to solve RE using lower order time discretizations with either fixed time steps or empirically based adaption. We formulate the two spatial discretizations within a MOL context for the pressure head form of RE as well as a fully mass-conservative version. We conduct several numerical experiments for both spatial discretizations with each formulation, and we compare the higher order, adaptive time discretization to a first-order approximation with formal error control and adaptive time step selection. Based on the numerical results, we evaluate the performance of the methods for robustness and efficiency.     

Structural response to non-stationary non-white stochastic ground motions

A numerical procedure is presented for calculating the survival probability of a linear multidegree of freedom structure subjected to non-stationary non-white ground motions using the concept of qualified envelope crossings. The moment equations governing the covariances of the structural response and its Hillbert transform are derived, and efficient techniques for calculating various convolution integrals which appear in these equations are discussed. Numerical integration of the moment equations yields the statistics of the response and the response envelope, from which the survival probability can be estimated. Excellent agreement is found with published analytical results for the response variances of a three storey building, and it is shown that the method can readily deal with cases for which there is no analytical solution.     

Random domain decomposition for flow in heterogeneous stratified aquifers

We study two-dimensional flow in a layered heterogeneous medium composed of two materials whose hydraulic properties and spatial distribution are known statistically but are otherwise uncertain. Our analysis relies on the composite media theory, which employs random domain decomposition in the context of groundwater flow moment equations to explicitly account for the separate effects of material and geometric uncertainty on ensemble moments of head and flux. Flow parallel and perpendicular to the layering in a two-material composite layered medium is considered. The hydraulic conductivity of each material is log-normally distributed with a much higher mean in one material than in the other. The hydraulic conductivities of points within different materials are uncorrelated. The location of the internal boundary between the two contrasting materials is random and normally distributed with given mean and variance. We solve the equations for (ensemble) moments of hydraulic head and flux and analyze the impact of unknown geometry of materials on statistical moments of head and flux. We compare the composite media approach to approximations that replace statistically inhomogeneous conductivity fields with pseudo-homogeneous random fields. This work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy (DOE): DOE/BES (Bureau of Energy Sciences) Program in the Applied Mathematical Sciences contract KC-07–01–01 and Los Alamos National Laboratory under LDRD 98604. This work made use of STC shared experimental facilities supported by the National Science Foundation under Agreement No. EAR-9876800. This work was supported in part by the European Commission under Contract No. EVK1-CT-1999–00041 (W-SAHaRA).     

A conceptual–numerical model to simulate hydraulic head in aquifers that are hydraulically connected to surface water bodies

In this paper, we present a conceptual‐numerical model that can be deduced from a calibrated finite difference groundwater‐flow model, which provides a parsimonious approach to simulate and analyze hydraulic heads and surface water body–aquifer interaction for linear aquifers (linear response of head to stresses). The solution of linear groundwater‐flow problems using eigenvalue techniques can be formulated with a simple explicit state equation whose structure shows that the surface water body–aquifer interaction phenomenon can be approached as the drainage of a number of independent linear reservoirs. The hydraulic head field could be also approached by the summation of the head fields, estimated for those reservoirs, defined over the same domain set by the aquifer limits, where the hydraulic head field in each reservoir is proportional to a specific surface (an eigenfunction of an eigenproblem, or an eigenvector in discrete cases). All the parameters and initial conditions of each linear reservoir can be mathematically defined in a univocal way from the calibrated finite difference model, preserving its characteristics (geometry, boundary conditions, hydrodynamic parameters (heterogeneity), and spatial distribution of the stresses). We also demonstrated that, in practical cases, an accurate solution can be obtained with a reduced number of linear reservoirs. The reduced computational cost of these solutions can help to integrate the groundwater component within conjunctive use management models. Conceptual approximation also facilitates understanding of the physical phenomenon and analysis of the factors that influence it. A simple synthetic aquifer has been employed to show how the conceptual model can be built for different spatial discretizations, the parameters required, and their influence on the simulation of hydraulic head fields and stream–aquifer flow exchange variables. A real‐world case was also solved to test the accuracy of the proposed approaches, by comparing its solution with that obtained using finite‐difference MODFLOW code. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

徐淮地区煤矿井筒破裂原因初探

本用震源力学理论和方法研究了徐淮地区从１９７０年以来构造应力场的方向和强度的时空变化过程。结果表明：以唐山地震为分界线，本区的应力场Ｐ轴取向由震前平均６１．８°变为震后平均７７．７°。如果将本区以宿北断裂为界分为南区和北区两个部分，则北区的Ｐ轴取向从６８．１°变７１．２°，而南区的Ｐ轴取向由６２．５°变到８３．６°，南区的变化明显于北区。     

Numerical Generation of Flow Nets — The FLOWNS Model

Abstract. A simple-to-use computer program (FLOWNS) has been developed for generating flow nets for any saturated rectangular domain with any combination of constant head or constant flux (including zero) boundary conditions. The program approximates with discrete values the continuous distributions of potential and stream function using finite-difference approximations of Laplace's equation. The hydraulic conductivity distribution may be anisotropic and/or heterogeneous. A contouring program is required to generate the final stream and equipotential lines.     

Diagrammatic solutions for hydraulic head moments in 1-D and 2-D bounded domains

We present a diagrammatic method for solving stochastic 1-D and 2-D steady-state flow equations in bounded domains. The diagrammatic method results in explicit solutions for the moments of the hydraulic head. This avoids certain numerical constraints encountered in realization-based methods. The diagrammatic technique also allows for the consideration of finite domains or large fluctuations, and is not restricted by distributional assumptions. The results of the method for 1-D and 2-D finite domains are compared with those obtained through a realization-based approach. Mean and variance of head are well reproduced for all log-conductivity variances inputted, including those larger than one. The diagrammatic results also compare favorably to hydraulic head moments derived by standard analytic methods requiring a linearized form of the flow equation.     

Diagrammatic solutions for hydraulic head moments in 1-D and 2-D bounded domains

We present a diagrammatic method for solving stochastic 1-D and 2-D steady-state flow equations in bounded domains. The diagrammatic method results in explicit solutions for the moments of the hydraulic head. This avoids certain numerical constraints encountered in realization-based methods. The diagrammatic technique also allows for the consideration of finite domains or large fluctuations, and is not restricted by distributional assumptions. The results of the method for 1-D and 2-D finite domains are compared with those obtained through a realization-based approach. Mean and variance of head are well reproduced for all log-conductivity variances inputted, including those larger than one. The diagrammatic results also compare favorably to hydraulic head moments derived by standard analytic methods requiring a linearized form of the flow equation.     

双相各向异性介质中弹性波方程的有限元解法及波场模拟

基于双相各向异性介质模型,首先推导了双相各向异性介质中弹性波传播的动力学方程及其Galerkin变分方程和有限元运动方程,然后给出了孔隙弹性波方程的有限元数值解法以及二维双相PTL介质中波场模拟的人为吸收边界条件. 最后,利用本文给出的有限元方法对双相PTL介质和双相各向同性介质中的弹性波传播进行了数值模拟. 结果表明:有限元方法和吸收边界条件有效、可行,在理想相界条件下,不论是从固体位移,还是从流体位移的波场快照都能看到明显的慢速拟P波;在黏滞相界情况下,能否观察到慢速拟P波,与含流体地层介质的耗散性质有关.对实际含流体介质,从流体位移分量的波场快照比从固体位移波场快照更容易观察到慢速拟P波.     

双相各向异性介质中弹性波方程的有限元解法及波场模拟

基于双相各向异性介质模型,首先推导了双相各向异性介质中弹性波传播的动力学方程及其Galerkin变分方程和有限元运动方程,然后给出了孔隙弹性波方程的有限元数值解法以及二维双相PTL介质中波场模拟的人为吸收边界条件. 最后,利用本文给出的有限元方法对双相PTL介质和双相各向同性介质中的弹性波传播进行了数值模拟. 结果表明:有限元方法和吸收边界条件有效、可行,在理想相界条件下,不论是从固体位移,还是从流体位移的波场快照都能看到明显的慢速拟P波;在黏滞相界情况下,能否观察到慢速拟P波,与含流体地层介质的耗散性质有关.对实际含流体介质,从流体位移分量的波场快照比从固体位移波场快照更容易观察到慢速拟P波.     

Analytic element modeling of embedded multiaquifer domains

An analytic element approach is presented for the modeling of multiaquifer domains embedded in a single-aquifer model. The inside of each domain may consist of an arbitrary number of aquifers separated by leaky layers. The analytic element solution is obtained through a combination of existing single-aquifer and multiaquifer analytic elements and allows for the analytic computation of head and leakage at any point in the aquifer. Along the boundary of an embedded multiaquifer domain, the normal flux is continuous everywhere; continuity of head across the boundary is met exactly at collocations points and approximately, but very accurately, in between. The analytic element solution compares well with an existing exact solution. A hypothetical example with a river intersecting two embedded domains illustrates the practical application of the proposed approach.