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Abstract
A useful technique is presented that allows a numerical solution based on the boundary integral theory to be sought for the transport of solutes in heterogeneous porous media. In this analysis it is assumed that the hydraulic conductivity is a known function of distance and the flow is unidirectional. This method entails an element-based interpretation of the integral replication of the governing partial differential equation. The region over which the scale dependent hydraulic conductivity is determined constitutes a representative element, and in one of the models described herein the resulting equivalent conductivity can be interpreted as the effective conductivity over that element. Solution of the conduction-dispersive equation is obtained by assembling all elemental solutions in a way that guarantees a sparsely populated, symmetric, and positive definite coefficient matrix in all cases. We adopt two methods based on this numeric technique to deal with media heterogeneity. Results were found to be very encouraging, and clearly indicate that the method can be relied upon for modelling more complex flows.
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O.O. Onyejekwe
Okey Oseloka Onyejekwe received his first degree from his home country, Nigeria, and his graduate degrees from the University of California, Davis. He is currently a professor of civil engineering at the University of Durban-Westville in South Africa. Dr. Onyejekwe has participated in several consulting projects involving surface and groundwater systems. His research field is computational fluids and hydraulics and recently he has been involved in the application of a novel numerical technique: a boundary-element-finite-element technique, known as the Green Element Method, to study a variety of engineering problems.