An efficient numerical scheme for fully coupled flow and reactive transport in variably saturated porous media including dynamic capillary effects

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient numerical scheme combining backward Euler and finite elements to simulate coupled flow and reactive transport in variably saturated porous media, emphasizing dynamic capillary effects.

Contribution

It presents a novel numerical approach that effectively handles the coupling and dynamic capillarity in porous media transport models.

Findings

The scheme demonstrates stable and accurate results in simulations.

Newton and L-Scheme linearizations are compared for performance.

Dynamic capillarity significantly influences transport behavior.

Abstract

In this paper, we study a model for the transport of an external component, e.g., a surfactant, in variably saturated porous media. We discretize the model in time and space by combining a backward Euler method with the linear Galerkin finite elements. The Newton method and the L-Scheme are employed for the linearization and the performance of these schemes is studied numerically. A special focus is set on the effects of dynamic capillarity on the transport equation.