DIRECT FORMULATION FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR TWO-DIMENSIONAL GROUNDWATER POLLUTION MODELLING WITH A COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

Abstract

Real world ground water pollution modelling deals with solute transport through anisotropic, heterogeneous media. The applicability of analytical solutions for such a real world system is extremely limited. As an effective tool, numerical models, such as finite difference and finite element methods, are usually employed to model field scenarios. Nevertheless, ground water pollution modelling is a hallenging task and frequently ends up with misleading results. Most of the time insufficient data are blamed for such erratic results. A recent investigation shows that the shortcomings of numerical formulations may be the major cause for many disputes and confusions in numerical analyses. In reality, a point injection of water in a static, homogeneous and isotropic groundwater system shows a radial dissipation of water forming a sphere; and a full-depth line injection shows a radial dissipation forming a cylinder. The finite difference method completely ignores this fundamental flow principles and allows water only to flow along orthogonal directions. To overcome this limitation, the finite element method was developed as a flexible approach in order to connect a node with the neighbouring nodes in various directions where water is assumed to flow in any directions along node connections. In a recent investigation, it has been found that the conventional finite element method does not keep the commitments; and its formulation techniques lead to a global matrix where a solution domain is not connected with all the neighbouring nodes and does not comply with the control-volume mass balance concept. A consistent finite element formulation approach which does not need imaginary mathematical formulation and overcomes the limitations of both the conventional finite difference and finite element methods has been developed. This method allows fluid flow and solute transport in a porous medium in radial directions. The global matrices for flow and transport obtained from this technique are field representative, diagonally dominant and easily convergent. The new method is robust, needs less mathematical computation and has many advantages over the conventional finite difference and finite element methods.