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Simulation of saline/freshwater flows using MODFLOW

Article · January 1998

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 Simulation of Saline/Fresh Water Flows Using MODFLOW
Weixing Guo ∗
Gordon D. Bennett
S. S. Papadopulos & Associates, Inc.
7944 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814

Abstract
A new computer program for simulating the flow of water of variable density,
SEAWAT, is developed by coupling a modified version of MODFLOW to the popular
transport code, MT3D. Density terms are added to MODFLOW, and flow is calculated
from fresh water head gradients and density difference terms. The resulting flow field is
passed to MT3D for concentration calculation; a new density field is then calculated and
fed back into MODLFOW. SEAWAT has been tested in solving several problems and
has yielded good agreement with published solutions. It can be applied to horizontal or
sloping aquifers, and it can be used for three-dimensional simulations.
SEAWAT provides a convenient tool for the simulation of variable-density flow,
in that it utilizes familiar software. All the major features of MODFLOW and MT3D are
preserved. Except for minor changes in the MODFLOW Basic Package input file, input
files for SEAWAT are identical to the standard MODFLOW/MT3D input files, and they
can be generated using many existing preprocessor programs for MODFLOW/MT3D.

1. Introduction
The interaction between saltwater and fresh water has been studied for many
years. Following the early work of Ghyben and Herzberg, Hubbert (1940) presented a
simple equation relating the elevation of a sharp interface to freshwater heads measured
on the interface, and to the densities of saltwater and fresh water. Henry (1964) used a
semi-analytical solution to define the location and the shape of the interface under the
condition of constant seaward flux of fresh water. A number of numerical and analytical
solutions have since been developed, including, for example, Lee and Cheng (1974),
Pinder and Cooper (1970), Huyacorn et al. (1987), Voss and Souza (1987), and Croucher
and O’Sullivan (1995).
The motivation for the development of SEAWAT was to create a convenient tool
for analyzing the flow of groundwater of variable density, by adapting two familiar
software packages, MODFLOW (McDonald and Harbaugh, 1988) and MT3D96 (or
simply MT3D in this paper; Zheng, 1996). MODFLOW was modified by adding density
terms to the flow calculation, and was coupled to MT3D, a solute transport code. In the
revised MODFLOW, the cell-by-cell flow is calculated from fresh water head gradients
and density difference terms. The resulting flow field is passed to MT3D for
concentration calculation; a new density field is then calculated in MT3D and fed back
into MODFLOW. While a brief discussion is presented here, more detailed information
can be found in the documentation of SEAWAT (Guo and Bennett, 1998).

∗
Now with Missimer International, Inc. 8140 College Parkway, Suite 202, Ft. Myers, FL 33919
 2. Finite Difference Approximation of The Variable-Density Flow Equation
The partial differential equation of ground-water flow in terms of fluid pressure, P
[ML-1T-2], is:
 ∂P
− ∇ ⋅ (v ) = S p −q (1)
∂t
where Sp [L4T2M-1] represents specific storage in terms of pressure, i.e. the volume of
water released from a unit volume of aquifer per unit decline in pressure, and q is the
volumetric sink/source term [L3T-1], i.e., the net volumetric rate at which water is added

to the system per unit volume of aquifer. v is the Darcy velocity [LT-1] defined as:
 [k ]
v=− [∇P + ρg∇Z ] (2)
µ
where [k] represents the permeability tensor [L2], µ is fluid viscosity [ML-1T-1], ρ is fluid
density [ML-3], and Z represents elevation above datum [L]. From the definition of fresh
water head, hf as the sum of Z and P/ρfg, one may write:
∇P = gρ f (∇h f − ∇Z ) (3)
where ρf is the density of fresh water [ML-3]. Substituting (3) into (2) yields
 [k ]ρ f g ρ −ρf
v=− [∇h f + ∇Z ] (4)
µ ρf
Substituting (4) into (1) and replacing the differential equation with a finite difference
approximation leads to:
ρ i +1 / 2, j ,k − ρ f
CC i +1 / 2, j ,k [h f , i +1, j ,k − h f ,i , j ,k + ( Z i +1, j ,k − Z i , j ,k )]
ρf
ρ i −1 / 2, j ,k − ρ f
− CC i −1 / 2, j ,k [h f , i , j ,k − h f ,i −1, j ,k + ( Z i , j ,k − Z i −1, j ,k )]
ρf
ρ i , j +1 / 2,k − ρ f
+ CRi , j +1 / 2,k [h f , i , j +1,k − h f ,i , j ,k + ( Z i , j +1,k − Z i , j ,k )]
ρf
ρ i , j −1 / 2,k − ρ f
− CRi , j −1 / 2,k [h f , i , j ,k − h f ,i , j −1,k + ( Z i , j ,k − Z i , j −1,k )]
ρf
ρ i , j ,k +1 / 2 − ρ f
+ CVi , j ,k +1 / 2 [h f , i , j ,k +1 − h f ,i , j ,k + ( Z i , j ,k +1 − Z i , j ,k )]
ρf
ρ i , j ,k −1 / 2 − ρ f
− CVi , j ,k −1 / 2 [h f , i , j ,k − h f ,i , j ,k −1 + ( Z i , j ,k − Z i , j ,k −1 )]
ρf
h nf +,i1, j ,k − h nf ,i , j ,k
= S s ,i , j , k V o ,i , j , k − q i , j , k (5)
t n +1 − t n
where Ss represents specific storage in terms of head [L-1], i.e., the volume of water
released from storage in a unit volume of aquifer per unit decline in head. CC, CR and
CV, [L2T-1], refer to conductance factors along columns, along rows and normal to the
layers, respectively; and it is assumed that the principal axes of hydraulic conductivity
coincide with the model axes. They are defined in the same way as in MODFLOW:
 AK
Conductance =
L
where A [L2] represents area normal to the coordinate direction, L [L] represents distance
along the coordinate direction, and K is the hydraulic conductivity to fresh water [LT-1]
in the coordinate direction, defined as K = ρ f gk / µ , where k is the corresponding
component of the permeability tensor. In this expression, µ represents the viscosity of
fresh water; the viscosity of saline water is actually a weak function of salt concentration,
but for practical purposes, the viscosity difference between freshwater and saline water
can usually be neglected; temperature variations are assumed negligible.
The density-difference expressions in (5) represent “constant” terms for each cell
in the sense that they do not involve the heads at the new time level, i.e. they do not
contain the variable for which MODFLOW solves. Thus the density-difference terms, in
each case multiplied by the appropriate conductance factor, can be moved to the right-
hand side of (5), where they are integrated by the MODFLOW code with other terms of
the equation which do not contain the new head values (such as pumpage from wells or
recharge). Through this approach MODFLOW can be used to calculate fresh water head
values in an aquifer containing water of variable density, without reformulation of
program variables in terms of pressure.
Because density depends on solute concentration, transport simulations must in
general be carried out in conjunction with MODFLOW; this allows calculation of a new
concentration distribution at each time step, from which a new density distribution can be
calculated and returned to MODFLOW as input. Under SEAWAT, salt concentration is
calculated by MT3D. When the new concentration of salt is calculated after each
transport step, SEAWAT converts salt concentration to density according the following
empirical relation (Baxter and Wallace, 1916):
ρ = ρ f + (1 − E )C (6)
-3
where C is the salt concentration expressed in mass/volume [ML ]. E is a dimensionless
parameter which has values close to 0.3 for concentrations ranging to that of seawater.
Because (6) is empirical and specific for “typical” saline water, SEAWAT should
be applied only for waters whose composition can be assumed “typical". Otherwise a
new function between density and salinity, similar to (6), should be defined and used to
convert salt concentration to the density of water.

3. The SEAWAT Program

The SEAWAT software for simulation of flow under conditions of varying
density is an adaptation of the conventional combination of MODFLOW and MT3D,
with a number of modifications to accommodate the variable density problem. In general,
the input files under SEAWAT are the same as under the standard MODFLOW/MT3D
transport approach, except some minor modifications (Guo and Bennett, 1998).
In conventional applications of MODFLOW, the simulation time is divided into
stress periods and time steps. Similar concepts are used in MT3D, and the input
parameters PERLEN, NSTP and TSMULT as used in MT3D must be the same as those
used in the associated flow model, except in steady state simulations. However, there is a
fundamental difference between MODFLOW and MT3D in the nature of the solution
scheme. In MODFLOW, numerical solutions are obtained using an implicit solution
scheme in which the heads at all active cells are calculated simultaneously for a given
time level through iterative methods. The implicit solution scheme is unconditionally
stable. On the other hand, MT3D calculates concentration through explicit procedures, in
which the velocity at the end of a time step of the flow calculation is used in each
transport step falling within that time step. The explicit scheme is subject to the problem
of instability, which constrains the time step length. In addition, the step length must be
limited to control numerical dispersion, through application of the Courant condition. In
conventional MODFLOW/MT3D applications, each MODFLOW time step is divided
into a number of transport steps for the MT3D transport calculation. MT3D calculates the
maximum permissible length of transport steps from the applicable criteria. Thus in
addition to stress periods and flow model time steps, the time progress in MT3D is
controlled by these internally-calculated transport steps.
In addressing transient variable density flow, a new MODFLOW calculation must
be made in conjunction with every MT3D transport step, since MODFLOW requires the
densities calculated by MT3D at each transport step, and these in turn result in a new
velocity field which MT3D requires for transport calculation. Thus at the end of each
transport step, the results of MT3D are converted into density, and then fed back to
MODFLOW. To start the SEAWAT calculation, MODFLOW is invoked for a very short
initial time duration, using densities derived from the initial salt concentration. This
initial time duration (t') has a default value of 0.01 time unit, but can be specified in the
MODFLOW input file. The sequence of calculation is illustrated in Figure 1. The
velocity field from the initial MODFLOW calculation, using t' and densities calculated
from the initial concentration, is used in MT3D for an initial transport step of (calculated)
length Tt1 (i.e. from time 0 to time t1). A new density field is derived from the calculated
concentrations at time t1, and used in the second MODFLOW calculation for time
duration Tf1 (from time t' to time t1+t'). Thus freshwater heads and flow are now
calculated for the time t1+t'. The sequence is continued in this way, so that MT3D always
uses a velocity field at a time t' after the start of the transport step, and MODFLOW, for
all time intervals except the first, always uses a density field calculated for a time t' prior
to the end of the time step. It is important to note these relationships between the times of
flow calculation and concentration calculation in SEAWAT, and the difference between
SEAWAT and conventional MODFLOW/MT3D applications in this regard.
MODFLOW and MT3D are not fully coupled in the SEAWAT approach;
therefore, the accuracy and reliability of the SEAWAT approach depends in part upon the
choice of a sufficiently small value of t'. If t' is too large, calculated flow and
concentrations may no longer be compatible. To ensure the reliability of numerical
solution, different values of the initial time step, t', should be tested. After the first run,
another run using a smaller value of the initial time step length (e.g. 0.5 t') should be
made, and the results from these two runs should be compared to check if the two
solutions are the same. If significant difference is noticed, a smaller value of t' should be
used. This procedure should be repeated until satisfactory results are obtained.
It should be noted that while concentration and flow values calculated by
SEAWAT are directly comparable to the corresponding terms as measured in the field,
the calculated values of freshwater head will represent the actual water level in a
monitoring well only if the water column within the well consists entirely of freshwater.
If the well contains saline or mixed water, a value for actual water level can be calculated
from the freshwater head as given by SEAWAT, provided the density distribution along
the vertical within the well is known.

4. Test Examples
4.1 The Henry Problem
Henry (1964) developed a semi-analytical solution to study the effects of
dispersion of salt at the saltwater-fresh water interface. Henry used the Fourier-Galerkin
method to solve the non-linear boundary value problem for steady-state salt distribution.
Henry’s solution has been widely used as a test case for variable-density model codes,
and was chosen as the first test problem for SEAWAT.
In the Henry problem, there is a steady state seaward flow of fresh water
discharging across a vertical sea boundary from a confined aquifer. The boundary and
initial conditions for the Henry problem are shown in Figure 2. The values of parameters
used in the SEAWAT test are the same ones as those used by Voss and Souza (1987).
The SEAWAT model domain is a two dimensional vertical cross-section. The
.
dH/dz=0 dC/dz=0
Height (cm)

Const. Head and Concentration

80
Constant Flux Boundary

60

40

20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Distance (cm) dH/dz=0 dC/dz=0

Figure 2. Model grid and boundary conditions of the Henry test.

.
top elevation of cells in the first layer is taken as sea level. The model has 10 layers and
66 columns. Along the right hand side of the model, salt concentration remains constant,
at 35000 mg/liter, and constant freshwater heads are calculated based on elevation and
saltwater density. Except on the right hand boundary, the initial concentration and
freshwater head are set as zero.

0.5 Isochlor 0.5 Isochlor

100 100

80 80
Height (cm)
Height (cm)

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Distance (cm) Distance (cm)

Henry (1964) Croucher & O'Sullivan (1995)

SEAWAT

Croucher & Sullivan (1995) Pinder &Cooper (1970) SEAWAT

Lee & Cheng (1974) Voss and Souza (1987)

Figure 3. Comparison of SEAWAT to other published results of the Henry test (b=0.1). Figure 4. Comparsion of SEAWAT to other published results of the Henry test (b=0.035).

In this test problem, dispersivity values are set as zero, so that dispersion
coefficients are simply equal to the molecular diffusion coefficient, which is one of the
MT3D input parameters. In the original Henry problem, the physical parameters were
chosen so that the ratio of dispersion coefficient to the inflow freshwater flux per unit
width (b=D/Q) was 0.1. As Croucher and O'Sullivan (1995) point out, however, some
previous investigators have used a different b value in their solutions. The major
difference lies in whether the linear seepage velocity or the Darcy velocity is used. To
compare SEAWAT to other published solutions, two simulations were made, using b=0.1
and b=0.035 respectively, while all other parameters were kept the same.
The location of the 0.5 isochlor after 6000 seconds of simulation under the
condition of b=0.1 and b=0.035 are shown in Figures 3 and 4, respectively, for the
SEAWAT solution and for other solutions. The location of the saltwater/fresh water
interface (0.5 isochlor) predicted by SEAWAT is in good agreement with other solutions.

4.2 Fresh Water Discharge into Sea, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Bennett and Giusti (1971) studied coastal groundwater flow in the southern
coastal plain of Puerto Rico using electric-analog techniques. The aquifer consists of
alluvial material ranging from clay to gravel; its thickness varies from 10-30 m at the
north edge of coastal plain to 100-130 m near the shore. The alluvium exhibits hydrologic
properties typical of a stratified anisotropic unconfined aquifer. The average hydraulic
conductivity is 10 m/day, determined from pumping tests. The vertical anisotropy of
hydraulic conductivity was found to be 1/1000. The bedrock surface is immediately
beneath the coastal alluvium and shows very low permeability. The annual precipitation
is about 889 mm near the shore and increases steadily inland.
Recharge Shoreline Sea
Inactive Cells

Specified Head and Conc. Boundaries

0
Constant Flux
Elevation (m)

Aquifer
-50

Impermeable Bedrock
-100

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500
Distance (m)
Figure 5. Model grid and boundary conditons of Test Example 2.

The model structure is shown in Figure 5. The two-dimensional cross-sectional

model has 112 columns and 20 layers, representing a total distance of 6828 m and depth
of 122 m. On the left side of the model, a constant flux boundary was simulated at a total
flow rate of 0.22 m3/day. The right side of the model was a specified head boundary,
where the freshwater head increases with depth, and also a constant concentration
boundary with total salt concentration of 35,000 mg/liter. These conditions were also
maintained along the seabed, which was represented by the second layer in the right hand
part of the mesh; the first layer in this part of the model contained inactive cells. A
recharge rate of 0.000146 m/day was applied along the first layer of model cells in the
land area. A steady state flow simulation was carried out using SEAWAT.
Figure 6(a) shows model-calculated freshwater heads under the steady state
condition. Figure. 6(b) shows the location of the freshwater/seawater interface (i.e.
 C/Co=0.5) as predicted in the simulation. These results closely approximate the sharp
interface determined by Bennett and Giusti (1971) using interface mechanics in
conjunction with the analog procedure. Calculated flows also agree well with the
flowlines developed through stream function analysis by Bennett and Giusti.
Fresh water head (m) 0.5 Isochlor
0 0

7.62 6.096

Elevation (m)
Elevation (m)

-50 4.572 -50

3.048 1.524

-100 -100

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500
Distance (m) Distance (m)

(a) Contours of model calculated freshwater heads. (b) The location of 0.5 isochlor.

Figure 6. Results of Test example 2 after a one year SEAWAT simulation.

References
Baxter, G. P. and C. C. Wallace, 1916. Changes in volume upon solution in water of
halogen salts of alkali metals, IX, American Chemical Society J. 38, 70-104.
Bennett, G. D. and E. V. Giusti, 1971. Coastal Ground-water flow near Ponce, Puerto
Rico, Geological Survey Research, U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper,
750-D, D206-D-211.
Croucher, A. E. and M. J. O’Sullivan, 1995. The Henry problem for saltwater intrusion.
Water Res. Research, 31 (7), 1809-1814.
Freeze, R. A. and J. A. Cherry, 1979. Groundwater, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 604 p.
Guo, W. and G. D. Bennett, 1998. SEAWAT-A computer program for Simulations of
Groundwater Flow of Variable Density, Missimer International, Inc., Fort Myers,
Florida.
Henry, H. R., 1964. Effects of dispersion on salt encroachment in coastal aquifers, U. S.
Geological Survey Water Supply Paper, 1613-C, C71-C84.
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Lee, C. and R. Cheng, 1974. On seawater encroachment in coastal aquifers, Water Res.
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McDonald, J. M. and A. W. Harbaugh, 1988. A modular three-dimensional finite-
difference ground-water flow model, Techniques of Water Resources
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