Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008DC96B

Gradual Variation Analysis for Groundwater Flow in the District of Columbia (Phase II)

Institute: District of Columbia
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2009-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $15,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $38,740

Principal Investigators: Li Chen

Project Summary: In last years proposal, we have established a connection to use gradually varied functions in groundwater research. We have accomplished three tasks: (1) extracting of real data from databases of DC areas, (2) storing the data into local database, (3) reconstructing the water-head surfaces for time sequences using gradually varied surface fitting. We have also completed the design of the combined gradually varied fitting with finite difference method. We expect to finish the coding and testing before the end of February 2008. We have planed to run the comparison with MODFLOW, and we would like to accomplish it in this proposal. In this proposal, we plan to complete two major tasks: (1) compare acquired data with MODFLOW processing, (2) Develop a mix method using gradually varied surfaces and the finite element method. Our method established a true 3D simulation model based on gradually varied functions. The testing result is already showing great promise. These functions do not rely on a rectangular Cartesian coordinate system. A gradually varied function can be defined in a general graph or network. Gradually varied functions are suitable for arbitrarily shaped aquifers.