TWODAN - 2-D analytic ground-water flow model for Windows - remediation design, capture zone analysis, and regional modeling problems

TWODAN Categories: flow models - pathlines/capture zones, flow models - saturated zone
 

TWODAN Description

Introduction to TWODAN
TWODAN Version 5.0
About the Analytic Method in TWODAN
TWODAN Modeling Capabilities
TWODAN User Interface
Other Key Features in TWODAN
TWODAN System Requirements
TWODAN Documentation
TWODAN License and Support
 

Introduction to TWODAN

Looking for software that can quickly perform a wide range of flow and advective transport analyses?

Look carefully at TWODAN. You will find many powerful capabilities that other 2-D models lack: heterogeneities, impermeable barriers, resistant barriers, and transient solutions, to name a few. Modeling doesn't get any easier than this! The analytic method demands minimal input, and the new seamless Windows interface can be quickly mastered. As hundreds of users attest, TWODAN is a great choice for modeling remedial design alternatives, wellhead capture zones, and regional aquifer flow.

TWODAN Version 5.0 for 32-bit Windows

With this new version, TWODAN combines advanced analytic elements with an excellent user interface. Compare TWODAN's capabilities, interface quality, and price to any competing 2-D modeling software; TWODAN is a great value! It is the right tool for many remediation design, capture zone analysis, and regional modeling problems.

About the Analytic Method in TWODAN

The analytic method described by Strack (1989, Groundwater Mechanics, Prentice-Hall) is the mathematical basis for TWODAN. The principle advantages of this method over conventional numerical methods are its simple input, accuracy, speed, and lack of a fixed grid. With the analytic method, only the boundaries of the domain are discretized, not the domain itself as in finite-difference and finite-element methods. You can model a huge area and still retain great accuracy in small regions of the model. There is no need to arbitrarily define the limits of the model - just model far enough from the area of interest to account for the real boundary conditions on the aquifer. The amount of required inputs is minimal compared to numerical methods. See below an illustration of this point with a TWODAN model.

The plot above is at a regional scale showing all elements in the model. The elements are in green. Head-specified linesinks form constant head boundaries at streams, ponds, and wetlands. A high conductivity glacial outwash valley aquifer is represented by a heterogeneity in the upper right area. A well with a U-shaped resistant (leaky) barrier is within this heterogeneity.

The plot above is the same model and solution - just a different, smaller window chosen for the plot. It shows the heterogeneity and barrier area in more detail.

The plot above is still the same model but even closer up on the well and barrier. Note the accuracy of the solution near the well and barrier, despite the large extent of the entire model. This level of accuracy and flexibility with model boundaries is not found in finite-difference or finite-element numerical methods.

In this method, large numbers of analytic solutions are superpositioned to solve complex ground-water flow problems. The functions that are superpositioned are associated with particular aquifer features. Some of the functions contain parameters that are unknown when the problem is posed (for example, the discharge of a head-specified linesink). These unknowns are determined by specifying boundary conditions at control points located on or near the aquifer features (for example setting the head at the center of a head-specified linesink). The number of specified boundary conditions equals the number of unknown parameters yielding a system of linear equations which is solved by standard methods. Once the unknown strengths are solved for, the resulting composite analytic solution satisfies the governing differential equation exactly except at singular points or lines associated with the analytic functions. The specified control point boundary conditions will be met exactly, and boundary conditions will be approximate between control points.

TWODAN Modeling Capabilities

TWODAN has a suite of advanced analytic modeling features that allow you to model everything from a single well in a uniform flow field to complex remediation schemes with numerous wells, barriers, surface waters, and heterogeneities.

Heterogeneous, Layered Aquifers
The aquifer modeled by TWODAN can consist of one or two hydraulically connected layers. It can be confined and/or unconfined and homogeneous or heterogeneous. Heterogeneities are input as closed polygon regions, each with a distinct set of aquifer properties (base elevation, lower layer K, lower layer thickness, upper layer K, and upper layer thickness). Heterogeneities can be nested inside one another and they can abut one another. See below a model of an aquifer with a variety of heterogeneities and mixed confined/unconfined conditions.

Impermeable and Resistant Boundaries
These features can have irregular shapes consisting of open or closed strings of line segments. The analytic implementation of these elements in TWODAN gives much greater accuracy than is possible with numerical methods. The discharge through resistant boundaries is proportional to a user-specified resistance (thickness/conductivity) and the head difference across the boundary. These elements offer an accurate way to model flow fields containing slurry walls, sheet-pile walls, etc. (see Fitts, C.R., Groundwater, 35(4), 1997). See models below using both the impermeable and resistant elements in remediation simulations.

This plot shows three heterogeneities in a TWODAN model. Counting the outside aquifer, there are four zones, each with unique definitions of base elevation, upper and lower layer elevations, and upper and lower layer conductivities. The two larger ones that abut are more conductive and have lower base elevations than the regional aquifer outside. The small heterogeneity nested inside of the biggest heterogeneity has a conductivity much lower than its surroundings.

Wells
Solutions for both steady-state and transient wells are available. TWODAN is also capable of optimizing discharges of steady wells based on specified head and aquifer discharge conditions (see Fitts, C.R., Groundwater, 32(4), 1994). When transient wells are used, you can write an ASCII file listing head vs. time at a specified location; this file can be imported to a spreadsheet for plotting hydrographs.

Linesinks
Both discharge- and head-specified linesinks are implemented. Head-specified linesinks are typically used to represent constant-head boundaries. Discharge-specified linesinks can be used to model infiltration or pumping trenches.

Infiltration/Leakage
Vertical infiltration or leakage to or from the aquifer can be modeled as uniform or as locally variable. Locally variable infiltration/leakage is modeled using solutions for circular area sources.

Uniform Regional Flow
A uniform cross-flow in the aquifer can be input at any angle and discharge rate in TWODAN.

TWODAN User Interface

TWODAN has a seamless, Windows-standard user interface. TWODAN has been designed to be very simple and fast to use. Most common modeling operations are executed at the push of a button on the main screen. Instead of using tedious data-entry forms, model input data and plot settings data are accessed directly in spreadsheet-like grids. You can quickly edit all aspects of the model input in the model input screen and all the plot settings from the plot settings screen. The input data for a model is stored in one file while the settings for a particular plot are stored in another. This separation is efficient, allowing you to push one button to repeat a plot with the same contours, pathlines, window coordinates, etc. See below for these three main screens in TWODAN.

TWODAN Main Screen

The plot above shows two open-ended impermeable barriers in a simulation of a funnel and gate remediation. There is a high conductivity heterogeneity in the region to the left of the gate.

The plot above is of a closed, resistant boundary with a well pumping inside it. This type of remediation is sometimes used to isolate the contamination zone and reduce the amount of clean water pumped.

TWODAN Model Input Screen

TWODAN Plot Settings Screen

Digitizing Features in TWODAN
Digitize, using the mouse and a DXF basemap overlay. You can also digitize over the top of the previous plot showing contours, pathlines, etc. You can zoom or pan to a different view during the middle of a digitizing operation. You can continuously digitize multiple points, lines, or circles, quickly defining long barriers, heterogeneities, and constant-head boundaries. The digitized coordinates are temporarily stored in the Windows clipboard. From there, the coordinates can be pasted into the TWODAN data grid or into other editor or spreadsheet files. As a bonus, you can use TWODAN as a general-purpose digitizing program with DXF basemaps.

Graphic Output Options in TWODAN
Your plots can include any of the following: (1) Contours of head, potential, or stream function. (2) Pathlines can be traced upstream or downstream from single points, a series of points along a line, or a series of points around a circle (useful for defining the capture zone of a well). Arrows along pathlines are spaced at user-defined time intervals. (3) The DXF basemap. (4) A layout of model elements.

TWODAN plots can be output to a huge array of devices - all supported by the Windows operating system. Graphic plots may be directed to the screen, Windows printer devices, bitmap (*.bmp) files, the clipboard, Surfer GRD files, and DXF files. With all these options, it is now much easier to incorporate TWODAN graphic output into your reports. Printer plots may be scaled automatically to fit the page or manually scaled to a specific scale (1 inch = 500 feet, for example). TWODAN automatically centers the plot on the page. You may print a plot with a landscape or portrait orientation, and you may add a border box and up to three lines of title text.

Automatic Contour Labeling in TWODAN
TWODAN labels contours automatically. You select which contours to label (each contour, every other one, every fifth one, or every tenth one) and how frequently the labels occur along a given contour. Set these parameters once in the plot settings screen, and they will be used each time you press a button to make a plot.

TWODAN On-Line Help Systems
The on-line Help is extensive and well-designed. The following forms of Help are available: tips that automatically display when you pause over a control, context-sensitive Help (F1 key), and Windows-standard detailed Help. The detailed Help is indexed, searchable, printable, and contains embedded jumps to related topics.

Graphic Plotting of Calibration Results in TWODAN
Like many models, TWODAN will compile a list of target heads, model-calculated heads, and differences between these. In addition, TWODAN has a very useful feature that plots the spatial distribution of the differences. See below an example of the graphic plotting of calibration results.

Plotted Calibration Results
The plot posts the difference between modeled head and target head at the coordinates of the observation. If the head is too high, the difference is plotted in red, and if the head is too low, it is plotted in green. This allows you to quickly see spatial patterns in the differences and think of needed modifications based on these patterns. TWODAN also calculates these summary calibration statistics: (1) mean error, and (2) sum of the squared differences.
 

Other Key Features in TWODAN

• Report-ready ASCII text output file summarizing the model inputs.
• Sum the aquifer discharge across a polyline. Digitize a multi-segment polyline, and TWODAN will calculate the discharge across this line. Handy for remediation design.
• Sum well or linesink discharges. Quickly sum the discharge of a wellfield or surface water defined by constant-head linesinks.
• Examine the analytic solution at a point. You digitize a point, and TWODAN calculates head, gradient, transmissivity, aquifer discharge, potential, and stream function at a point.
• Create a hydrograph of head vs. time at a point. Useful for models using transient well solutions. The output file is a comma-delimited list of head, time that can be imported into spreadsheet and other graphics programs for report-quality plotting.

TWODAN Documentation

Most of the information about how to use the software is in the on-line Help system. The TWODAN Manual is a 7 x 9 inch spiral bound booklet containing the following sections:

• Introduction
• Tutorial - step-by-step development of a complex TWODAN model showing screens as they appear in the process.
• Method Employed - a detailed section describing the analytic methods and equations employed.
• Program Checks - 14 separate checks of the method and solutions implemented in TWODAN. One check of a complex model against the equivalent MODFLOW model. The model input and plot settings files for the check models are included on the software diskettes.
• References

TWODAN System Requirements

32-bit Windows operating system (Windows 95/98/2000 or Windows NT)
4 MB of hard disk space
8 MB RAM

TWODAN License and Support

The commercial TWODAN license is a typical software license; one license allows installation on one computer at a time. The academic license is a site license available for qualified educational institutions and is restricted to academic, noncommercial purposes. Purchase of either license includes unlimited support to make sure that TWODAN operates properly on your system.

TWODAN Overview
TWODAN Detailed Description
TWODAN Prices
TWODAN Demo