Geological Engineering Department

Faculty of Engineering
Groundwater Modeling
Boundary Conditions
Dr. Doni Prakasa Eka Putra
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Boundary conditions
(After Freeze and Cherry, 1979)
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Three basic types of Boundary Conditions
After:
Definition of Boundary and Initial Conditions in the Analysis of Saturated
Gournd-Water Flow Systems - An Introduction, O. Lehn Franke, Thomas E. Reilly,
and Gordon D. Bennett, USGS - TWRI Chapter B5, Book 3, 1987.

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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Natural and Artificial Boundaries
It is most desirable to terminate your model at natural
geohydrologic boundaries. However, we often need to
limit the extent of the model in order to maintain the
desired level of detail and still have the model execute in a
reasonable amount of time.

Consequently models sometimes have artificial
boundaries.

For example, heads may be fixed at known water table
elevations at a county line, or a flowline or ground-water
divide may be set as a no-flow boundary.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Natural and Artificial Boundaries
BOUNDARY TYPE NATURAL
EXAMPLES
ARTIFICIAL USES
CONSTANT
Fully Penetrating Surface
Water Features
Distant Boundary (Line of
unchanging hydraulic head
contour) or
SPECIFIED HEAD
SPECIFIED FLOW
Precipitation/Recharge Flowline
Pumping/Injection Wells Divide
Impermeable material Subsurface Inflow
HEAD DEPENDENT
FLOW
Rivers Distant Boundary (Line of
unchanging hydraulic head
contour)
Springs (drains)
Evapotranspiration
Leakage From a Reservoir
or Adjacent Aquifer

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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Hydrologic Features as Boundaries
Boundary can be assigned to hydrologic feature
such as:
Surface water body
Lake, river, or swamp
Water table
Recharge and evapotranspiration or source/sink specified
head
Impermeable surface
Bedrock or permeable unit pinches out

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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Ground-water / Surface-water Interaction
Hydraulic head in aquifer can be equal to elevation of
surface-water feature or allowed to leak to the surface-
water feature

Usually defined as a Constant-Head or Specified
Head Boundary or Head-dependent flow boundary

If elevation of SW changes, as with streams, elevation of
the boundary condition changes

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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
How a stream could interact
with the ground-water
system
T.E. Reilly, 2000
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
No-Flow Boundary
Hydraulic conductivity contrasts between units
Alluvium on top of tight bedrock
Assume GW does not move across this
boundary
Can use ground-water divide or flow line
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Understanding natural system
Alluvium
Clay, Silt
Sandy materials
Shale
Groundwater Divide
Water table
River
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Conceptualizing groundwater system
Groundwater Divide
No Flow
River
Specified Head
Recharge
K1
K2
K3
K2
No Flow
Model area
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Types of Boundary Conditions
1) Specified Head: head is defined as a function of space and time
(could replace ABC, EFG)
Constant Head: a special case of specified head (ABC, EFG)
2) Specified Flow: could be recharge across (CD) or zero across (HI)
No Flow (Streamline): a special case of specified flow where the
flow is zero (HI)
3) Head Dependent Flow: could replace (ABC, EFG)

Free Surface: water-table, phreatic surface (CD)
Seepage Face: h = z; pressure = atmospheric at the ground surface (DE)
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
DIRICHLET
Constant Head & Specified Head Boundaries
Specified Head:
Head (H) is defined as a function of time and
space.
Constant Head:
Head (H) is constant at a given location.

Implications:
Supply Inexhaustible, or Drainage Unfillable
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Constant Head
Example of Potential Problems Which May Result
From Misunderstanding / Misusing a Constant
Head Boundary

If heads are fixed at the ground surface to
represent a swampy area,
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Constant Head
and an open pit mine is simulated by defining
heads in the pit area, to the elevation of the pit
bottom,


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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Constant Head
the use of constant heads to represent the swamp
will substantially overestimate in-flow to the pit.
This is because the heads are inappropriately
held high, while in the physical setting, the
swamp would dry up and heads would decline,
therefore actual in-flow would be lower. The
swampy area is caused by a high water table. It is
not an infinite source of water.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Constant Head
Lesson: Monitor the in-flow at constant head
boundaries and make calculations to assure
yourself the flow rates are reasonable.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Note ground-water divide shifts after
developmentmay or may not be a good no-flow
BC
T.E. Reilly, 2000
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Specified Head
Example of Potential Problems Which May Result
From Misunderstanding / Misusing a Specified
Head Boundary

When a well is placed near a stream, and the
stream is defined as a specified head,
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Specified Head
the drawdown may be underestimated, if the
pumping is large enough to affect the stream
stage. The specified flow boundary may supply
more water than the stream caries,
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Specified Head
and drawdowns should be greater, for the given
pumping rate. The stream stage, and flow rate,
should decrease to reflect the impact of the
pumping.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: Specified Head
Lesson: Monitor the in-flow at specified head
boundaries. Confirm that the flow is low enough
relative to the streamflow, such that stream
storage will not be affected.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
NEUMANN
No Flow and Specified Flow Boundaries
Specified Flow:
Discharge (Q) varies with space and time.
No Flow:
Discharge (Q) equals 0.0 across boundary.

Implications: H will be calculated as the value required to
produce a gradient to yield that flow, given a specified
hydraulic conductivity (K). The resulting head may be above
the ground surface in an unconfined aquifer, or below the base
of the aquifer where there is a pumping well; neither of these
cases are desirable.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: SPECIFIED FLOW
Example of Potential Problems Which May Result
From Misunderstanding / Misusing a Specified
Flow Boundary

In this example, the model represents a simple unconfined
aquifer with one well. Two cases are presented:
1) an injection well, and
2) a withdrawal (pumping) well.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: SPECIFIED FLOW
Injection Well: If the injection flow is too large,
calculated heads may be above the ground
surface in unconfined aquifer models.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: SPECIFIED FLOW
Withdrawal Well: If the withdrawal flow is too
large, calculated heads may fall below the bottom
of the aquifer, yet the model may still yield water.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: SPECIFIED FLOW
Lesson: Monitor calculated heads at specified
flow boundaries to ensure that the heads are
physically reasonable.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: NO FLOW
Example of Potential Problems Which May Result
From Misunderstanding / Misusing a No Flow
Boundary
When a no flow boundary is used to represent a ground
water divide, drawdown may be overestimated, and
although the model does not indicate it, there may be
impacts beyond the model boundaries.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: NO FLOW
Simplified model with no-flow boundary
representing the ground-water divide.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: NO FLOW
Use of a no-flow boundary in this manner may cause
problems: When a ground water divide is defined as a no-
flow boundary, the flow system on the other side of the
boundary cannot supply water to the well, therefore
predicted drawdowns will be greater than would be
experienced in the physical system. The no-flow boundary
prevents the ground water divide from shifting, implying
there drawdown is zero on the other side of the divide.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Example: NO FLOW
Lesson: Monitor head at no flow boundaries used
to represent flow lines or flow divides to ensure
the location is valid even after the stress is
applied.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
CAUCHY
Head Dependent Flow
Head Dependent Flow:

H
1
= Specified head in reservoir
H
2
= Head calculated in model



Implications:
If H
2
is below AB, q is a constant and AB is the seepage face, but
model may continue to calculate increased flow.
If H
2
rises, H
1
doesn't change in the model, but it may in the field.
If H
2
is less than H
1
, and H
1
rises in the physical setting, then inflow is
underestimated.
If H
2
is greater than H
1
, and H
1
rises in the physical setting, then
inflow is overestimated.

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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Free Surface
Free Surface:
h = Z, or H = f(Z)

e.g. the water table h = z




or a salt water interface



Note, the position of the boundary is not fixed!
Implications: Flow field geometry varies so transmissivity will
vary with head (i.e., this is a nonlinear condition). If the water table is
at the ground surface or higher, water should flow out of the model, as
a spring or river, but the model design may not allow that to occur.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Seepage Surface
Seepage Surface: The saturated zone intersects the
ground surface at atmospheric pressure and water
discharges as evaporation or as a downhill film of flow.

The location of the surface is fixed, but its length varies
(unknown a priori).






Implications: A seepage surface is neither a head or flowline.
Often seepage faces can be neglected in large scale models.
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Boundary Condition Exercise
Example: An oceanic island in a humid climate; permeable
materials are underlain by relatively impermeable bedrock
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Boundary Condition Exercise
Example: An alluvial aquifer associated with a medium-
sized river in a humid climate; the aquifer
is underlain and bounded laterally by bedrock of low
hydraulic conductivity
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Boundary Condition Exercise
Example: An alluvial aquifer associated with an intermittent
stream in an arid climate; the aquifer is underlain and
bounded laterally by bedrock of low to intermediate
hydraulic conductivity
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Boundary Condition Exercise
Example: A western valley with internal drainage in an arid
region; intermittent streams flow from surrounding
mountains towards a valley floor; a part of valley floor is
playa
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Geological Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Practical Considerations
Boundary conditions must be assigned to every point
on the boundary surface

Modeled boundary conditions are usually greatly
simplified compared to actual conditions