Investigating pore network models as numerical tools to solve steady saturated groundwater ow

In this paper, a novel procedure is introduced and employed to transformthe partial dierential steady saturated ow equation in porous media into a system oflinear equations using pore network models (pnms). at rst, a simple square porenetwork model (spnm) is introduced and then this model is improved by increasingnode connectivity (square-diagonal pnm; s-dpnm) and modifying the handling ofimpermeable boundaries by introducing imaginary nodes and pipes (s-dpnmi). finally, ageneralized formulation for the unstructured discretization (unstructured pnm; upnm)of the domain is given and the eect of handling impermeable boundaries (upnmi) onmodel accuracy is investigated. to explore the capabilities of these models as numericaltools, three examples are solved. application of these models without modications forimpermeable boundaries (spnm, s-dpnm, and upnm) yields comparable results to thoseof traditional finite dierence (fd) and finite element (fe) methods. modication inhandling impermeable boundary nodes not only yields results that are everywhere moreaccurate than fd and fe, but also benets by the simplicity of formulations