Preliminary study on density-dependent flow and transport in the Lake Karachai area (UE RaCoS project): adequacy of CODESA-3D to model a plume of contaminant brine

Abstract

One of the main objectives in this preliminary study was to implement CODESA-3D (COupled variable DEnsity and SAturation) code for the Lake Karachai site and to run preliminary simulations under a variety of conditions, but with density ratio coeffcient no larger than 0.07 (density variations of maximum 7%). Because CODESA-3D is a finite element numerical code for coupled flow and transport that is normally used for problems of seawater intrusion, where density variations are around 3%, part of our work has been devoted to determine the limit of applicability of the code.