Stream tube integration method for analysing subsurface fluid flow

✍ Scribed by C. W. Liu; S. K. Chen

• Book ID: 101282467
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 307 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6087
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(19980315)12:3<483::aid-hyp590>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

A stream tube integration method is introduced to solve transient subsurface ¯uid ¯ow problems. The method combines a geometry-embedded form of Darcy's Law and the notion of location of average. Two types of problems, transient radial ¯ow to a well of ®nite radius in an areally in®nite aquifer and in a double porosity system, are solved by the stream tube integration method and the integral ®nite dierence method. Results of the solutions show that the stream tube integration method, with ®xed coarse mesh, are more accurate and better behaved than the integral ®nite dierence method, with ®ne mesh. The ®xed mesh stream tube integration method is readily extended to the moving mesh method. With much coarse mesh, the moving mesh technique can obtain the same accurate results as the ®xed mesh stream tube integration method. It is suggested that the stream tube integration method is a viable way to state, solve, interpret and verify numerical solutions. The method provides ecient computation and improved accuracy for analysing subsurface ¯uid ¯ow.