Application of the discontinuous spectral Galerkin method to groundwater flow

The discontinuous spectral Galerkin method uses a finite-element discretization of the groundwater flow domain with basis functions of arbitrary order in each element. The independent choice of the basis functions in each element permits discontinuities in transmissivity in the flow domain. This formulation is shown to be of high order accuracy and particularly suitable for accurately calculating the flow field in porous media. Simulations are presented in terms of streamlines in a bidimensional aquifer, and compared with the solution calculated with a standard finite-element method and a mixed finite-element method. Numerical simulations show that the discontinuous spectral Galerkin approximation is more efficient than the standard finite-element method (in computing fluxes and streamlines/pathlines) for a given accuracy, and it is more accurate on a given grid. On the other hand the mixed finite-element method ensures the continuity of the fluxes at the cell boundaries and it is particular efficient in representing complicated flow fields with few mesh points. Simulations show that the mixed finite-element method is superior to the discontinuous spectral Galerkin method producing accurate streamlines even if few computational nodes are used. The application of the discontinuous Galerkin method is thus of interest in groundwater problems only when high order and extremely accurate solutions are needed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.