A finite volume method for density driven flows in porous media

In this paper, we apply a semi-implicit finite volume method for the numerical simulation of density driven flows in porous media; this amounts to solving a nonlinear convection-diffusion parabolic equation for the concentration coupled with an elliptic equation for the pressure. We compute the solutions for two specific problems: a problem involving a rotating interface between salt and fresh water and the classical but difficult Henry’s problem. All solutions are compared to results obtained by running FEflow, a commercial software package for the simulation of groundwater flow, mass and heat transfer in porous media.