2020 Volume 76 Issue 2 Pages 204-214
A new point-source (PS) model is proposed for the finite element analyses (FEAs) of groundwater seepage flow. In FEAs, the effects of borehole pumping or injection are often approximated by nodal PSs because the boreholes are small in comparison to the analysis areas. To obtain accurate results, the elements that are connected to the PS (ECPSs) must be of a certain size corresponding to the borehole radius. This considerably restricts unfettered mesh generation. The proposed PS model facilitates the use of arbitrary unstructured meshes by correcting the permeability of the ECPSs based on theoretical solutions. In addition, the proposed model allows the analysis to be performed using existing analysis codes without any changes because the proposed model can be used to carry out the pre/post-processing step to revise and restore the ECPS permeabilities. The efficacy of the proposed model is verified by using it to solve two simple problems. Structured and unstructured meshes based on three types of elements are prepared for each of the two problems. The verifications using the proposed model provide accurate results.
