This article presents numerical investigations on accuracy and convergence properties of
several numerical approaches for simulating steady state flows in heterogeneous aquifers.
Finite difference, finite element, discontinuous Galerkin, spectral, and random walk methods
are tested on two-dimensional benchmark flow problems. Realizations of log-normal
hydraulic conductivity fields are generated by Kraichnan algorithms in closed form as finite
sums of random periodic modes, which allow direct code verification by comparisons with …

Solving the flow problem is the first step in modeling contaminant transport in natural porous
media formations. Since typical parameters for aquifers often lead to advection-dominated
transport problems, accurate flow solutions are essential for reliable simulations of the
effective dispersion of the solute plumes. The numerical feasibility of the flow problem for
realistic parameters accounting for the heterogeneity of the aquifer and the spatial scale of
the transport problem is addressed in a benchmark study. The study aims to investigate the …