Open-source high-performance software packages for direct and inverse solving of horizontal capillary flow

GERLERO, GABRIEL S.; BERLI, CLAUDIO L. A.; KLER, PABLO A.

Capillarity

yandy ager

Año: 2023 vol. 6 p. 31 - 40

2709-2119

This work introduces Fronts, a set of open-source numerical software packages for nonlinear horizontal capillary-driven flow problems in unsaturated porous media governed by the Richards equation. The software uses the Boltzmann transformation to solve such problems in semi-infinite domains. The scheme adopted by Fronts allows it to be faster and easier to use than other tools, and provide continuous functions for all involved fields. hl{The software is capable of solving problems that appear in hydrology, but also in other particular domains of interest such as paper-based microfluidics}. As the first known open-source implementation to adopt this approach, emph{Fronts} has been validated against analytical solutions as well as existing software achieving remarkable results in terms of computational costs and numerical precisionhl{, and is meant to aid the study and modeling of capillary flow.} Fronts can be freely downloaded and installed, and offers a friendly environment for new users with its complete documentation and tutorial cases.