Parameter Estimation in Multispecies Transport Reaction Systems Using Parallel Algorithms

Abstract

The authors present a general approach to estimate parameters in reactive multispecies transport models. The basic idea is to treat the discretized model equations as nonlinear constraints of a large finite-dimensional optimization problem. Multiple shooting in time is a specific feature of the discretization. The resulting constrained least squares problem is solved by a generalized Gauss-Newton method. Parallelism on several levels is exploited in the algorithmn. A practical parameter estimation problem from contaminant hydrology is considered and successfully solved. The reliability of the parameter estimates is confirmed by the results of a sensitivity analysis. A more detailed description of the presented methods and results can be found in [9].KeywordsParameter estimationmultispecies transport reaction systemsparallel algorithmsmultiple shootingnonlinear constrained optimization problemgeneralized Gauss-Newton methodsensitivity analysis