Neyshabur Plain Groundwater Flow Modelling Using Analytic Element and Point Collocation Mesh Free Methods

In this paper, an effective approach using Analytic Element Method (AEM) is presented for large-scale groundwater flow modelling in two dimensional steady state condition. Hydrologic characteristics are exerted in the AEM by using Laplace equations and linear functions. In this algorithm, the potential discharge of each hydrologic characteristic is obtained and combined using the superposition principle and then added to the aquifer potential discharge. In order to compare AEM results, Point Collocation Method (PCM) has been used which is a free-mesh approach based on the finite element method. In PCM approach, some points are distributed on the computational domain and the shape functions are created in order to solve the governing equation. Proposed algorithm evaluation was done by Neyshabur plain data. The particle swarm optimization algorithm has been employed for model calibration. The Python object-oriented programming language was used in implementation of modelling. There is no need for interpolation in AEM. The AEM approach is not a complicated method and uses simple superposition principle. The comparison of results indicate that the results of AEM are more accurate than the results of PCM.