Numerical solution of steady-state groundwater flow and solute transport problems: Discontinuous Galerkin based methods compared to the Streamline Diffusion approach

Abstract

In this study, we consider the simulation of subsurface flow and solute transport processes in the stationary limit. In the convection-dominant case, the numerical solution of the transport problem may exhibit non-physical diffusion and under- and overshoots. For an interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretization, we present a $h$-adaptive refinement strategy and, alternatively, a new efficient approach for reducing numerical under- and overshoots using a diffusive $L^2$-projection. Furthermore, we illustrate an efficient way of solving the linear system arising from the DG discretization. In $2$-D and $3$-D examples, we compare the DG-based methods to the streamline diffusion approach with respect to computing time and their ability to resolve steep fronts.