Numerical study on saltwater intrusion in a heterogeneous stratified aquifer

In a costal aquifer, saltwater intrusion is frequently observed due to an excess exploitation. There are many researches focused on the saltwater intrusion. However, there are few researches, which take into consideration the mixing processes in a stratified heterogeneous aquifer. In the present study, a laboratory experiment and numerical simulation are made in order to understand the phenomena in a stratified heterogeneous aquifer. The result of the numerical analysis agrees well with the measurement and indicates that the saltwater intrusion with the mixing process is dominated by the convection in the high permeable layer and the molecular diffusion in the low permeable layer.