Implementing Hydrologic Boundary Conditions in a Multiphysics Model
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 12
Abstract
Modeling of hydrologic processes using multiphysics modeling packages shows significant promise in a number of applications. However, these packages have not yet developed a complete set of implementations for boundary conditions important in hydrologic modeling. Three such boundary conditions—rainfall infiltration, seepage faces, and evapotranspiration fluxes—are implemented using the generic boundary condition and internal sink routines provided in one multiphysics package, COMSOL multiphysics. Comparison with results from previous simulations using dedicated hydrologic models demonstrates that with care and creativity these boundary conditions can be implemented accurately and efficiently. Boundary condition implementation should not limit the applicability of multiphysics models to a broad set of problems of interest to the hydrologic community.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a Stanford Graduate Fellowship awarded to the first writer. The writers thank Mike Cardiff, Peter Kitanidis, Michele Minihane, and Jiahe Wang for sharing their knowledge of COMSOL.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14 • Issue 12 • December 2009
Pages: 1374 - 1377
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: May 22, 2008
Accepted: Mar 5, 2009
Published online: Mar 9, 2009
Published in print: Dec 2009
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