FEFLOW – Getting started with groundwater quality modelling

INVESTMENT

Fee: No charge*

Time commitment: approximately two hours in total, divided as follows:

• Self-study: Eight modules, combining online video lectures, demonstration videos, quizzes, hands-on exercises and reading materials. 
• (Optional) Additional reading materials can be made available for you to master the software at a greater depth.

PRODUCT

FEFLOW

Groundwater hydrologists or hydrogeologist are often asked questions about groundwater flow, aquifer hydraulics, management of water resources, fate of contamination plumes or feasibility of geothermal systems, plus others.

Providing answers to all these questions requires specific field information and a general understanding of hydrogeological processes. Nature is not simple and even simple tasks require state-of-the-art supporting tools. A groundwater model provides a quantitative framework for synthesising field information and for conceptualising hydrogeologic processes. The model is used as tool to assist consultants and engineers for getting possible answers to a specific groundwater problem.

This self-paced course will introduce you to the basic concept of modelling groundwater quality using FEFLOW. FEFLOW is the most intuitive and comprehensive software package for groundwater and porous media modelling. It can simulate a multitude of processes involving fluid flow, groundwater age, contaminant and heat transport under fully or variably-saturated conditions – from local to regional scale. Especially in the context of groundwater quality, FEFLOW can cover a wide spectrum of contaminant cases, ranging from conservative mass transport, multi-species transport, kinetic reactions up to fully geochemistry.

About FEFLOW

FEFLOW is widely recognised as a comprehensive software package for subsurface flow and transport simulation. FEFLOW’s unique meshing capabilities (structured and unstructured) allows for the highest degree of flexibility to account in detail for the most simple to complex geometrical configurations. The software is used by leading research institutes, universities, consulting firms and government organisations all over the world. FEFLOW’s scope of application ranges from simple local scale to complex largescale modelling. Application areas include water management, mine water, saltwater intrusion, geothermal energy and variably saturated media.

IS THIS COURSE RIGHT FOR ME?

The course has been designed for consultants, engineers, hydrogeologist and geologist with some basic understanding of hydrogeological concepts. It is required you have certain understanding of the flow modelling workflows in FEFLOW. If you are new to the software, it is strongly recommended you participate in the free self-paced course ‘Getting started with groundwater modelling using FEFLOW’.

WHAT ARE MY EXPECTED OUTCOMES?

After completing this course, you will be able to start building your first groundwater quality model with FEFLOW. You will have learnt:

• To understand the different boundary conditions for mass transport in FEFLOW
• To understand the role of discretisation in mass transport models in FEFLOW
• To build a FEFLOW model for groundwater quality modelling (conservative transport)
• To completely parametrise the model (materials and boundary conditions)
• To use different methods to overcome numerical oscillations associated to mass transport
• To run the model and do a basic visualisation
• To check the model results

HOW WILL I LEARN?

Each module includes videos and materials that you need for model examples and quizzes. It will take you around two hours to complete the course at a time that fits your needs and requirements – and from the comfort of your own office, home or any location convenient for you.

MODULE DETAILS

Introduction - Preliminary steps

Module 1 - Introduction to transport processes

Module 2 – Discretisation and numerical oscillations in transport

Module 3 – Introduction to mass transport modelling

Module 4 – Problem settings

Module 5 - Properties

Module 6 - Running example

Module 7 - Preventing numerical oscillations

Module 8 - Final remarks

PRESENTER
DR. CARLOS RIVERA VILLARREYES, DHI GERMANY  
Dipl.-Ing. (FH), Civil Engineering, University of Piura, Peru; MSc, Desert Studies - Water Resources Management, Ben-Gurion University, Israel; PhD, Hydrology, University of Potsdam, Germany

Dr. Carlos Rivera Villarreyes, works as Global Product Specialist for FEFLOW. Dr. Rivera has profound knowledge of groundwater and unsaturated-zone modelling as well as parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis (e.g., with PEST), all these in the context of mining applications among others. He has carried several groundwater modelling projects and trained professionals in groundwater modelling around the globe. Dr. Carlos is an authorised DHI trainer.

REQUIREMENTS

• Reliable internet connection of sufficient bandwidth
• An installation of the DHI License Management and FEFLOW software is required for the completion of the hands-on exercises. This will be explained in the Module 1 of the training course.
• If you are not familiar with basic terminology of Hydrogeology, e.g., definitions of aquifer properties (confined/unconfined systems, transmissivity, conductivity, etc.) and principles of groundwater flow (e.g., Darcy Law), it is strongly recommended to do a pre-reading of standard textbooks of Hydrogeology.

RESOURCES

• Highlights of FEFLOW here
• Webinar recording: "PEST++ in FePEST: A new era of groundwater model calibration and uncertainty quantification"
• Webinar recording: "Effectively boosting groundwater modelling: What’s new in FEFLOW 7.5 release?"
• "Getting started with geothermal modelling: Open-loop systems" course here
• "Getting started with groundwater modelling course" here
• THE ACADEMY Courses and Events Calendar - webinars
• THE ACADEMY's Training Calendar

INFORMATION AND CONTACT

Carlos Andres Rivera Villarreyes - cvi@dhigroup.com

academy@dhigroup.com

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