APPLICATION OF BOUNDARY-FITTED COORDINATE TRANSFORMATIONS TO GROUNDWATER-FLOW MODELING

The Boundary-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) Transformation method is a very p owerful, efficient and accurate method of modeling heat or fluid flow in two- or three-dimensional domains with complex boundary shapes and abrupt changes in internal properties. Since the late 1970's it has be come the modeling method of choice among many aerodynamicists and heat -flow modelers. It is being presented here for the first time as a new approach to modeling groundwater flow, based on successful research r esults in two dimensions. The BFC transformation method was employed t o simulate two hypothetical well-flow scenarios in isotropic and aniso tropic domains, and actual groundwater flows in the area of West Lafay ette, Indiana. The numerical solutions in those cases were at least as accurate as and/or consistent with those obtained by purely finite di fference and finite element methods, but with the added advantage of m ore accurate representation and implementation of the boundary conditi on in the region of great sensitivity. The BFC method successfully app lied to two-dimensional simulations should be easily extended to simul ations of three-dimensional flow and transport and thus, this research is continuing in that direction.