Three-dimensional Groundwater Flow Analysis System using the Element-free Galerkin Method

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) groundwater flow analysis system using the element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) is presented. The EFGM is a meshless method that is expected to eliminate the task of mesh generation. However, an analysis system by EFGM for complex 3D geometry has not yet been developed. In this paper, a unique mesh data called consistency-free mesh assembly (CMA) is introduced. The CMA is a simple assembly of meshes permitting incompatibility at the material interface and overlapping of meshes. This paper shows that CMA is easy to generate and the use of CMA brings great advantages to EFGM. Some numerical tests are also presented to demonstrate the usefulness of CMA and discuss the convergence of solutions and the influence of material discontinuity.

Keywords:

• Element-free Galerkin method (EFGM)
• Consistency-free mesh assembly (CMA)
• Meshless
• Meshfree
• Groundwater seepage flow

Notes

^† E-mail: [email protected]

^‡http://www.ennex.com/fabbers/StL.asp

^¶http://www.web3d.org/vrml/vrml.htm

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hideyuki Sakurai