Efficient Aquifer Simulation in Complex Systems

Abstract

An approach for simulation of groundwater linear flow is presented. If the eigenvalues technique is used to solve the flow equations, the eigenvectors provide an orthonormal basis. In this basis a state vector for the aquifer can be explicitly and efficiently computed. From this vector variables of interest (piezometric heads or fluxes) in some or all points of the aquifer can be obtained in the time desired. Also, in most real cases, external actions can be expressed as a linear combination of a reduced set of basic stresses, allowing there to be an important reduction in computations. The number of operations used for previous computations and for each time period are evaluated for this approach and for others currently being used. The proposed approach is more convenient when the simulations to be performed for various alternatives are of considerable accumulative length. The approach is used as the groundwater flow module in a simulation model of a conjunctive use scheme in eastern Spain.