GEOS 5311 Lecture Notes: Boundary

Conditions
Dr. T. Brikowski

Spring 2013

Vers. 1.14, March 31, 2010

Introduction

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 Why Boundaries?

Figure 1: Boundaries control your domain! Often a model just

determines how water moves from one boundary to another.
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 Boundary Classifications

Real world
Physical boundary (sharp change in hydraulic conductivity)
Hydraulic boundary (groundwater divides, streamlines)

Mathematical Model
Fixed head (Dirichlet)
Fixed flux (Neumann)
Head-dependent flux (mixed, Robbins or 3rd kind)

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 Natural Boundary Types

Figure 2: Example of natural physical and hydrologic boundary

types [Anderson and Woessner , 1992, Fig. 4.4].
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 Selecting Boundaries

Physical or Natural Boundaries (Fig. 2)

geologic contacts, margins of surface water bodies, etc.

Hydraulic Boundaries
water divides or streamlines
derived from conceptual model (risky) or larger-scale
models (telescopic mesh refinement)
really only useful in steady-state problems. Streamlines
often move in transient problems

Distant Boundaries
when in doubt, put boundaries far from area of interest
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 any errors in boundary specification will have minimal
effect

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Telescopic Mesh Refinement and Boundary Condition

Figure 3: Telescopic mesh refinement as a means for defining

boundary conditions [risky, but commonly practiced; Anderson
and Woessner , 1992, Fig. 4.5].
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Detailed Description

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 Specified Head (Dirichlet)
Conceptually this is an infinite source or sink for water

usually represents a body of surface water

accurate only when the unmodeled flux (i.e. whatever

external flux maintains the bodys water level) exceeds the
modeled flux by a factor of 10 or more

good to have at least one of these to provide a reference

point for modeled head

error-prone on coarse grids

Modflow (Fig. 4):

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 IBOUND array (*.ba6 file) set to negative value, head
value specified in starting head array (*.ba6 file)
use General Head Boundary Package for variable but
externally-controlled head boundary (usually a variable lake
level, etc.)

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 Modflow Boundary Conditions

Figure 4: Boundary condition specification in Modflow. Note areal fluxes

(e.g. recharge) are converted to volumetric by multiplying by cell surface
area [Anderson and Woessner , 1992, Fig. 4.6].
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 Specified Flux (Neumann)
use when water exchange with surface water bodies is
independently known (e.g. through geochemical studies)

most accurate type of boundary condition (i.e. good to use

since wont accidentally generate infinite fluxes)

Modflow:
implement non-zero flux using Well (placing water into
the boundary cell for known volume of flux) or Recharge
Package (for known Darcy velocity)
no-flow boundaries are the default along model edge
and between inactive (IBOUND=0) and active cells (i.e.
conductance of that cell face is set to zero)
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 Head-Dependent Flux
usually a leakage process, e.g. from a lake through low-
permeability fine sediments below

Modflow:
River Package
vertical leakage through basal sediments
user specifies bottom elevation of riverbed and vertical
conductance
each river cell can serve as source or sink
Drain Package: same as river except no interaction if
h < zdrain (elevation of drain bottom)
Stream Package: same as river, but accounts for
surface flow routing (river stage depends on upstream
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linkages/aquifer interaction)

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Modflow Head-Dependent
Conditions

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 River Package
Inputs: riverbed elevation (RBOT), conductance (CRIV =
Kr LM
M ), stage (HRIV, height above RBOT)

note conductance calculated from riverbed hydraulic

conductivity (Kr ), width W , and cross-sectional area (LW )

depends on head difference between river and its base

(perched stream) or head in the aquifer (cell head HRIV

note Stream package simply adds a calculated discharge

based on Manning Equation1, and maintaining a water mass-
balance in the stream/river in the downstream direction
1
../../../../Hydrogeology/LectureNotes/Streamflow/Streamflow_
Measurement.html
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 Input for River Package

Figure 5: Boundary condition specification in Modflow. Note areal fluxes

(e.g. recharge) are converted to volumetric by multiplying by cell surface
area [Anderson and Woessner , 1992, Box 4.1, Fig. 1].
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Bibliography

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Anderson, M. P., and W. W. Woessner, Applied Groundwater Modeling, Academic Press, San
Diego, 1992.