Combined analytical/numerical approaches to solving fluid flow problems in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain

Various analytical and numerical approaches are presented for the study of unsaturated flow processes in the vicinity of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the proposed site of an underground radioactive waste repository. Approximate analytical methods are used to study absorption of water from a saturated fracture into the adjacent rock. These solutions are incorporated into a numerical simulator as fracture/matrix interaction terms to treat problems such as flow along a fracture with transverse leakage into the matrix. An automatic fracture/matrix mesh generator is described; it allows for more efficient mesh generation for fractured/porous media, and consequently leads to large savings in computational time and cost. 21 refs., 6 figs