Sensitivity and stability analysis for groundwater numerical modeling: a field study of finite element application in the arid region

This study intends to investigate the impacts of scheme type, time step, and error threshold on the stability of numerical simulation in the groundwater modeling. Hence, a two-dimensional finite element (FE) was implemented to simulate groundwater flow in a synthetic test case and a real-world study (Birjand aquifer). To verify the proposed model in both cases, the obtained results were compared with analytical solutions and observed values. The stability of numerical results was analyzed through different schemes and time-step sizes. Besides, the effect of the error threshold was examined by considering different threshold values. The results confirmed that the FE model has a good capacity to simulate groundwater fluctuations even for the real problem with more complexities. Examination of implicit outputs indicated that groundwater simulations based on this scheme have good accuracy, stability, and proper convergence in all time intervals. However, in the explicit and Crank–Nicolson schemes the time interval should be less than or equal to 0.001 and 0.1 day, respectively. Also, results reveal that for making stability in all schemes the value of the error threshold should not be more than 0.0001 m. Moreover, it derived that the boundary conditions of the aquifer influence the stability of numerical outputs. Finally, it was comprehended that as time interval and error threshold increases, the oscillation rate propagated.