2 SEAWAT Version 4: A Computer Program for Simulation of Multi-Species Solute and Heat Transport
Introduction
SEAWAT is a coupled version of MODFLOW (Harbaugh and others, 2000) and MT3DMS (Zheng and Wang,
1999; Zheng, 2006) designed to simulate three-dimensional, variable-density ground-water flow and multi-species
transport. The Variable-Density Flow (VDF) Process in SEAWAT is based on the constant-density Ground-Water
Flow (GWF) Process of MODFLOW-2000. The VDF Process uses the familiar and well-established MODFLOW
methodology to solve the variable-density ground-water flow equation (Langevin and others, 2003). The MT3DMS
part of SEAWAT, referred to as the Integrated MT3DMS Transport (IMT) Process, solves the solute transport
equation.
Previous versions of SEAWAT (Guo and Bennett, 1998; Guo and Langevin, 2002; Langevin and others, 2003)
were developed for isothermal conditions, and thus, did not solve simultaneous solute and heat transport with
the combined effects of concentration and temperature on variable-density flow. This restriction was due to the
implementation of the equation of state for fluid density, which could be a function of only solute concentration.
Furthermore, previous versions of SEAWAT did not represent the effects of fluid viscosity variations, which are most
commonly caused by temperature variations. The updated version of SEAWAT described herein, called SEAWAT
Version 4, or SEAWAT_V4, retains all of the capabilities of SEAWAT-2000, but is also able to simulate solute and
heat transport simultaneously, as well as the effect that fluid viscosity variations have on resistance to ground-water
flow.
Heat transport and solute transport contain many similarities (Anderson, 2005). Their mathematical
representation is nearly identical when the terms describing heat transport are formulated in equivalent solute
expressions. SEAWAT_V4 leverages these similarities by using MT3DMS to simulate heat transport. With this
approach, temperature is one of the simulated species. Thorne and others (2006) provide a description of the
approach and show how to assign appropriate thermal parameters for the temperature species.
Although SEAWAT_V4 was designed primarily to accommodate simultaneous solute and heat transport, the
features that allow for this capability have been implemented in a general fashion that may be useful for other
applications where temperature variations are not important. Other features have also been added to improve overall
functionality. The new features are:
The equation of state for fluid density can be a function of one or more MT3DMS species and, optionally, a •
pressure term.
The effect of fluid viscosity on the internodal conductance terms can be included in a simulation by using the •
Viscosity (VSC) Package and the Layer Property Flow (LPF) Package. The equation for viscosity can be a
function of one or more MT3DMS species. There is also an option to designate the temperature species, and
to specify one of several non-linear equations to represent the dependence of viscosity on temperature.
An option has been implemented to solve the VDF equation to update the flow field only if fluid densities •
have changed by some user-specified value. This option may substantially reduce runtimes for simulations in
which a new flow solution is not necessarily required for each transport timestep.
Auxiliary variables can now be used with the Time-Variant Constant-Head (CHD) Package to designate the •
fluid density value associated with the prescribed head. This option allows for more control of boundary heads
specified with the CHD Package.