An $h$-Adaptive Finite Element Solution of the Relaxation Non-Equilibrium Model for Gravity-Driven Fingers

An $h$-Adaptive Finite Element Solution of the Relaxation Non-Equilibrium Model for Gravity-Driven Fingers

Year:    2021

Author:    Huanying Bian, Yedan Shen, Guanghui Hu

Advances in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Vol. 13 (2021), Iss. 6 : pp. 1418–1440

Abstract

The study on the fingering phenomenon has been playing an important role in understanding the mechanism of the fluid flow through the porous media. In this paper, a numerical method consisting of the Crank-Nicolson scheme for the temporal discretization and the finite element method for the spatial discretization is proposed for the relaxation non-equilibrium Richards equation in simulating the fingering phenomenon. Towards the efficiency and accuracy of the numerical simulations, a predictor-corrector process is used for resolving the nonlinearity of the equation, and an $h$-adaptive mesh method is introduced for accurately resolving the solution around the wetting front region, in which a heuristic a posteriori error indicator is designed for the purpose. In numerical simulations, a traveling wave solution of the governing equation is derived for checking the numerical convergence of the proposed method. The effectiveness of the $h$-adaptive method is also successfully demonstrated by numerical experiments. Finally the mechanism on generating fingers is discussed by numerically studying several examples.

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Journal Article Details

Publisher Name:    Global Science Press

Language:    English

DOI:    https://doi.org/10.4208/aamm.OA-2020-0218

Advances in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Vol. 13 (2021), Iss. 6 : pp. 1418–1440

Published online:    2021-01

AMS Subject Headings:    Global Science Press

Copyright:    COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press

Pages:    23

Keywords:    Non-equilibrium Richard equation $h$-adaptive mesh method a posteriori error estimation fingering phenomenon porous media flow.

Author Details

Huanying Bian

Yedan Shen

Guanghui Hu