Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Groundwater Flow In A Sandy Tidal Beach 1. One-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis, W. Harrison, C. S. Fang, S. N. Wang

VIMS Articles

A 31-day time series of observations of beach water table and tidal fluctuations was obtained from 13 wells along a profile perpendicular to the shoreline at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Finite element techniques were applied to solve the one-dimensional, unsteady state, nonlinear equation for groundwater movement. For the finite element analysis, the semi-infinite mass (unconfined aquifer) had to be replaced by a finite mass. The boundary conditions were found from the field data by directly solving the flow equation with a finite difference technique. The finite element method, using the variational principle, provided a reasonable solution and afforded economy in computer …