HYDROCOIN Problem

Background
The problem was originally developed as Level 1, case study 5 within the scope of the
international HYDROCOIN project "Groundwater hydrology modeling strategies for
performance assessments of nuclear waste disposal". It examines a ground water flow over a
stationary surface salt layer, taking into account the diffusion or dispersion and the variable fluid
density.
In a vertical section of the size 900 m x 300 m, the density flow of a porous, saturated,
homogeneous and isotropic material is investigated. The groundwater flows due to a prescribed
horizontal pressure gradient over a salt water source. The salt water boundary condition is
located at the bottom of the model area. Freshwater flows on the upper edge from the left in the
model area. On the left and right edge will be no mass flow.
Fig. 1 Structure of the HYDROCOIN problem 1.5[Kolditz, 1996]

Flow boundary conditions:

pressure distribution at zhe upper edge p(x) = (2-x/900 m) bar;
The left, right and lower edge are impermeable.
Transport boundary conditions:
Concentration at the lower edge for 300 m < x < 600 m is Cin = 1;
Right and left edges as well as the right and left side of the source at the lower edge are
impermeable.
Initial conditions:

Concentration C = 0;
Horizontalpressure gradient from the left (2 bar) to the right (1 bar)

For calculation with SPRING, the model area is discretized horizontally into 90 elements, each
10 m long and vertically into 60 elements, each 5 meters high. The thickness perpendicular to the
model plane is 1 m. The calculation is transient until a substantially steady state is reached after
500 years with a time step of months.

Fig. 3 Calculated concentration isolines 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7,
0.8, 0.9, 1.0 for the HYDROCOIN problem 1.5 after 500 years:
Comparison between [Kolditz, 1996], above and SPRING, below

Fig. 4 Visualisiation of the velocities for the HYDROCOIN problem 1.5

During the calculation, the salt run-off amounts were accounted and logged for each time step,
which flow off over the right upper range. Figure 3 shows the measured rates over time.

Fig. 5 Calculated rates for the HYDROCOIN problem 1.5

HYDROCOIN with modified parameters

In [Javeri, 2000] boundary conditions and material parameters of the HYDROCOIN problem are
modified. The lower boundary is assumed to be impermeable, the salt water intrusion is
simulated by a source on the ground. In addition, the parameters of porosity, dispersion and
diffusion were changed (see Table 4). In addition, the nuclide transport for nuclides consisting of
mother and daughter nuclide is considered . The definition of the problem SN1 is described here.

Fig. 6 Structure of the problem SN1, modified by (Javeri, 2000)

Flow boundary conditions:

Pressure distribution at the upper edge p(x) = (2-x/900 m) bar;
The left, right and lower edge are impermeable.
Transport boundary conditions:
Salt water source 10.000 kg/year or. 6,667 kg/(m/year);
Mother nuclide source 100 kg/year or 6,66710-2 kg/m/year);
Daughter nuclide source 10 kg/year or 6,66710-3 kg/m/year)
The left, right and lower edge are impermeable.
Initial conditions:
Concentration C = 0;
Horizontal pressure gradient from left (2 bar) to the right (1 bar)

The source area was defined for 300 m - 300 m and has the same parameters as the rest of the
model area.
For the calculation with SPRING, the model area was discretized horizontally into 90 elements,
each 10 m long and vertically into 60 elements, each 5 meters high. The thickness perpendicular

to the model plane is 1 m. The calculation is transient over 2000 years with a time step of
month.
The calculation was performed both with the module SITRA (without nuclide) and the module
XTRA (with nuclide) and compared with the results of (Javeri, 2000).

Calculated concentration isolines 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, 0.35, 0.4, 0.45, 0.5, 0.55,
Abb. 7 0.6 for the modified HYDROCOIN problem without nucklide transport after 2000
years: Comparison between [Javeri, 2000], above and SPRING, below
During the calculation, the salt run-off amounts were accounted and logged for each time step,
which flow off over the right upper range. Figure 8 shows the measured rates over time.

Abb. 8

Calculated rates for the modified HYDROCOIN problem without nuclide transport by
[Javeri, 2000]

The following figures show the results of the calculation with the module XTRA compared to the
calculation case SN1 in (Javeri, 2000).

Calculated salt-concentration isolines from 0.05 in 0.05-steps for the modified

Fig. 9 HYDROCOIN problem with nuclide transport after 2000 years: Comparison between
[Javeri, 2000], above and SPRING, below.

Calculated mouther nuclide concentration isolines from 0.0005 in 0.0005-steps for the
Fig. 10 modified HYDROCOIN problem with nuclide transport after 2000 years: Comparison
between [Javeri, 2000], above and SPRING, below.

Calculated daughter nuclide concentration isolines from 0.0001 in 0.0001-steps for the
Fig. 11 modified HYDROCOIN problem with nuclide transport after 2000 years: Comparison
between [Javeri, 2000], above and SPRING, below.
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