Material transport through porous media: A finite-element Galerkin model

A two-dimensional transient model for flow of a dissolved constituent through porous media was developed. Mechanisms for advective transport, hydrodynamic dispersion, chemical absorption, and radioactive decay are included. Implementations of quadrilateral finite elements, bilinear spatial interpolation, and Gaussian elimination are used. The programming language FORTRAN IV is used. In addition to a description of the mathematical formulation, the numerical treatment and the computer implementation results of two computer simulations are included. One is a comparison with a well-known analytical treatment and is intended as a partial validation. The other simulation, a seepage-pond problem, is a more realistic demonstration of the capabilities of the computer model. Complete listings of input and output are given so that this simulation may be used for checkout purposes. A comprehensive description of the material-transport computer model is given.