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A new boundary element formulation for time‐dependent confined and unconfined aquifer problems
Author(s) -
Aral Mustafa M.,
Tang Yi
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr024i006p00831
Subject(s) - boundary element method , aquifer , finite element method , method of fundamental solutions , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , computation , boundary knot method , boundary (topology) , boundary value problem , mathematics , time domain , analytic element method , mathematical optimization , extended finite element method , mathematical analysis , computer science , geology , geotechnical engineering , groundwater , engineering , algorithm , structural engineering , psychology , social psychology , computer vision
The boundary element method (BEM) is used extensively for the solution of unsteady groundwater flow problems in confined or unconfined aquifers. In recent literature most of these studies concentrate on the efficient solution of resultant matrix equations in time, since the advantages and efficiency of BEM over other domain methods is well‐established for spatial approximation aspects of the technique. Here a new numerical time integration procedure is presented for boundary element solution of time‐dependent aquifer problems. The proposed algorithm reduces the resulting finite difference time integration process to a boundary only computation, if desired, and extends the efficiency of the BEM to time‐dependent problems which is an important step forward for boundary formulation approach. The proposed method is tested with considerable success on two classical aquifer problems. Results obtained are presented comparatively with analytical, finite element, dual reciprocity, and standard boundary element time integration procedures, clearly demonstrating the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.