HR: 1340h
AN: H13B-1253    [Abstracts]
TI: Analytic Element Solution For Inhomogeneities In Hydraulic Conductivity Placed In Anisotropic Porous Background
AU: Jankovic, I
EM: ijankovi@buffalo.edu
AF: Department of Civil, Structural Engineering, University at Buffalo, 207 Jarvis Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States
AU: * Suribhatla, R
EM: rms29@buffalo.edu
AF: Department of Civil, Structural Engineering, University at Buffalo, 207 Jarvis Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States
AB: The Analytic Element Method (AEM) was originally developed (e.g. Strack, 1989) for solving steady-state groundwater flow problems in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) isotropic domains. In the present study the AEM approach is extended to solve for head and specific discharge due to inhomogeneities (inclusions) of isotropic conductivity that are embedded in anisotropic background (the 2D/3D conductivity tensor has two different principal components). The original AEM approach uses a single coordinate system (e.g. radial for circular inclusions and elliptical for elliptical inclusions) to construct AEM solutions from general solutions to the Laplace equation. For the anisotropic case presented here, the solution procedure involves scaling the original Cartesian coordinate system (and inclusions' boundaries) to transform the governing equation in the anisotropic background to the Laplace equation; no scaling is used for inclusions' interiors. The complete solution is hence based on two separate coordinate systems. Boundary conditions (continuity of head and normal component of specific discharge) are rewritten in terms of the two corresponding coordinate systems. Scaling relations between the two coordinate systems are established in order to derive explicit linear relations between various solution coefficients. The infinite series solutions are truncated for numerical implementation. During implementation, both boundary conditions are satisfied approximately but with high precision using a moderate number of coefficients. To demonstrate accuracy of the AEM solutions, comparison with highly-resolved Finite-Difference based solution is presented.
DE: 1828 Groundwater hydraulics
DE: 1847 Modeling
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting