May 24, 2017

Modeling of Mine Tailings Dam Failure with OpenFOAM - Tamboraque Site - Videos

May 24, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Tailings dams are supposed to last forever but they fail regularly due to a series of factors related to the construction and maintenance of the mine site. Accoring the cronology of mayor tailings dam failures of WISE Uranium Proyect there has been one mayor failure in 2017, two on 2016 and the last one in South America was on 2015 in Minas Gerias - Brasil.

This article show the numerical modeling of a tailings dam failure relate to the Tamboraque site in Peru andes. The model represents the dynamic transport of tailings material as a non-newtonian fluid. Model was developed using high-end open source software as OpenFOAM, Salome Platform and QGIS.

May 03, 2017

An overview of Freewat, the new MODFLOW interface in QGIS

May 03, 2017/ Saul Montoya

A new and fresh opensource preprocessing and post processing tool is available. Freewat 0.4 was launched as a beta version and publicly available upon registration from this website: http://freewat.eu/. Most of the developers are italian and the project is funded under the H2020 program from the European Union and the Regione Toscana. The software comes with clear and descriptive documentation and tutorials plus the installation instructions.
This article show the most important features of Freewat and its capabilities for representing the geospatially referenced regional groundwater flow.

April 23, 2017

Key concepts for modeling groundwater flow driven by geothermal energy

April 23, 2017/ Saul Montoya

For most hydrogeologists numerical modeling of groundwater flow is still new and brings several challenges when dealing with input data, model construction and simulation. Most of our modeling efforts are done in gravity driven groundwater flow on shallow aquifers solved by Darcy law equations. Sometimes we excel ourselves in conceptualizing "advanced" topics as unsaturated flow, contaminant transport, variable density or baseflow calibration. What about if we consider another driving force besides gravity? Will out lives be happier/miserable? Could we cope with the huge amount of required data?

March 28, 2017

How to install Phreeqc on Notepad++

March 28, 2017/ Saul Montoya

PHREEQC version 3 is a computer program written in the C and C++ programming languages that is designed to perform a wide variety of aqueous geochemical calculations. PHREEQC implements several types of aqueous models: two ion-association aqueous models (the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory model and WATEQ4F), a Pitzer specific-ion-interaction aqueous model, and the SIT (Specific ion Interaction Theory) aqueous model. Using any of these aqueous models, PHREEQC has capabilities for (1) speciation and saturation-index calculations; (2) batch-reaction and one-dimensional (1D) transport calculations with reversible and irreversible reactions.

March 23, 2017

Key concepts to become a numerical modeler

March 23, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Nowadays, water resources management requires a better understanding of nature and a superior evaluation of the impacts caused by humans. We are concerned and focused on sustainability because we live on a planet with limited resources and changing environments. In some way, we know that the actual changes are results from past and present actions along with the effect of nature cycles.

March 17, 2017

Seepage flow modeling from mine waste dump with MODFLOW

March 17, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Exercise developed and modified by Karen Martinez, Sandra Teruya and Saul Montoya

This example is a simulation of a mining dump which is a continuous source of concentrated leachate.

March 17, 2017

10 reasons why a hydrogeologist should know MODFLOW

March 17, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Numerical modeling has become an important part on most hydrogeological investigations. We can even say that the use of numerical models is on “fashion” in decision making processes about groundwater resources.
Numerical models are mathematical interpretations of nature and groundwater flow. They can have limitations, but still they are the best tools available for the understanding of current groundwater flow conditions and the simulation of predictive scenarios on groundwater resources.
This post shows the 10 most important reasons why a common hydrogeologist should know MODFLOW. Reasons are classified among scientific, professional and others.

March 17, 2017

How much does a groundwater modeler cost?

March 17, 2017/ Saul Montoya

After my last job as a staff groundwater modeler, I have received 6 unsolicited job offers. Of course many modelers with more years and more conections than I, have received much more offers, however, I feel happy with my humble record. The point of this comparison is that senior groundwater modelers with experience in mining hydrogeology are really scarce. Mining and consultant companies are looking for talented groundwater modelers, and somehow there are not much modelers coming out from the universities.

March 17, 2017

Why is MODFLOW better than other softwares for groundwater modelling?

March 17, 2017/ Saul Montoya

MODFLOW is the groundwater modelling software developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It appeared in 1984 and has had a constant developement till now. MODFLOW’s capacities allow the representation of regional or local groundwater flow and its interaction with superficial water bodies.

March 16, 2017

How to interpolate elevation values on Model Muse - VIDEO

March 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

How to interpolate elevation values on Model Muse - VIDEO

March 16, 2017

Tutorial to create a MODFLOW Grid by shapefile and import elevation

March 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Tutorial to create a MODFLOW Grid by shapefile and import elevation

March 16, 2017

Tutorial: Well Interference Modeling and Interpretation with MODFLOW

March 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Interesting modeling exercise of groundwater well interference with MODFLOW. This tutorial is made from the ground up with the input files and a discussion over the results. Three pumping were considered with rates form 5 to 10 l/s. Simulation period was set up to 15 years and interference was analysed over 1, 3, 5,10 and 15 years.

March 16, 2017

Tutorial to transform a 3D into a 2D Dam Seepage Model with MODFLOW

March 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Interesting tutorial for the transformation of a 3D numerical groundwater flow model done with MODFLOW into a lightweight 2D model. The case of study is a groundwater flow model of tailing seepage done with horizontal discretization from 50 to 12.5m and 21 layers. The tutorial cover spatial object and dataset treatment together with some discussion on the model construction and discretization.

March 16, 2017

Basic Concepts of Groundwater Modeling with MODFLOW and Model Muse

March 16, 2017/ Saul Montoya

MODFLOW is a software for groundwater modeling developed by the USGS. The software is capable of representing conditions related to groundwater flow such as evapotranspiration, recharge, drainage, river interaction among others. Its finite different approach gives the capability to calculate the flow regime with exceptional control on water budget discrepancy. With MODFLOW one can rely on that the flow going in the model is the same as the flow going out of it, from the regional scale and on cross sections.

March 15, 2017

Regional Groundwater Modeling with MODFLOW and Model Muse

March 15, 2017/ Saul Montoya

Groundwater modelling can be done on multiple temporal and spatial scales, from a laboratory setup to a complete basin, from steady-state to thousands of years. Each modelling requirement has a specific discretization and boundary condition setup. This tutorial cover a regional groundwater modelling example on a andean basin on steady state conditions, the tutorial covers the whole set of modelling steps as grid generation and elevation import as well as the model simulation and result evaluation. Numerical modelling was done in open source software as MODFLOW with Model Muse, both developed by the USGS.