Numerical simulation of flows in unsaturated porous media by an adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method: application to La Verne dam

Jean-Baptiste Clément (1, 2) , Frederic Golay (1) , Damien Sous (2, 3) , Mehmet Ersoy (1)

1 IMATH - Institut de Mathématiques de Toulon - EA 2134
2 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
3 SIAME - Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Ingénieur Appliquées à la Mécanique et au génie Electrique

Richards' equation is used to simulate flows in unsaturated porous media but it remains challenging to solve cost-effectively for complex cases. An adaptive strategy is proposed to deal with sharp wetting fronts. It is based on weighted discontinuous Galerkin methods and adaptive mesh refinement. The reservoir impoundment of La Verne dam is a demanding case because there are several materials, stiff hydraulic properties, dynamic boundary condition and seepage. The comparison of results with experimental data highlights the potential of the solving strategy.

Mots clés: Discontinuous Galerkin methods; BDF; Richards' equation; Adaptive Mesh Refinement; Weighted DG

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Equations aux dérivées partielles [math.AP]

Jean-Baptiste Clément, Frederic Golay, Damien Sous, Mehmet Ersoy. Numerical simulation of flows in unsaturated porous media by an adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method: application to La Verne dam. Topical Problems of Fluid Mechanics 2022, Feb 2022, Prague, Czech Republic. 2022. ⟨hal-03935976⟩