Simulation of groundwater flow using meshfree collocation method with Cubic Spline function

Abstract

Groundwater is a long term reservoir of the natural water cycle. India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. There are many areas in the country facing scarcity of water primarily due to unplanned groundwater development resulting in fall of water levels. If measures to ensure sustainable groundwater usage are not taken consequences may include a collapse of shortages of potable water, conflict and suffering. Therefore it is necessary to identify the groundwater resources and predict the groundwater flows at different locations in the aquifers. Numerical methods can simulate the groundwater flows for the delineated aquifers. In this study, the simulation of groundwater flow is carried out using Meshfree Collocation Method (CM) with Cubic Spline (CS) function and moving support domains. The results are compared with the analytical solution and found satisfactory. The sensitivity analysis is carried out for Courant number, simulation scheme, spatial and temporal variation.