Saltwater intrusion modeling in heterogeneous confined aquifers using two-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method

This study develops a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with a two-relaxation-time collision operator (LTRT) to solve saltwater intrusion problems. A directional-speed-of-sound (DSS) technique is introduced to take into account the hydraulic conductivity heterogeneity and discontinuity, as well as the velocity-dependent dispersion coefficient. The forcing terms in the LTRT model are customized in order to recover the density-dependent groundwater flow and mass transport equations. Using the LTRT with the squared DSS achieves at least second-order accuracy. The LTRT results are verified with Henry’s analytical solution as well as compared with several numerical examples and modified Henry problems that consider heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity and velocity-dependent dispersion. The numerical results show good agreement with the Henry analytical solution and with the numerical solutions obtained by other numerical methods.