MODFLOW-Grid Approach
MODFLOW-Grid Approach
Objectives
The grid approach to MODFLOW pre-processing is described in this tutorial. In most cases, the
conceptual model approach is more powerful than the grid approach. However, the grid approach is
useful for simple problems or academic exercises where cell-by-cell editing is necessary.
1 Introduction
Two approaches can be used to construct a MODFLOW simulation in GMS: the grid
approach and the conceptual model approach. The grid approach involves working
directly with the 3D grid and applying sources/sinks and other model parameters on a
cell-by-cell basis. The conceptual model approach involves using the GIS tools in the
Map module to develop a conceptual model of the site being modeled. The data in the
conceptual model are then copied to the grid.
editing is necessary. It is not necessary to complete this tutorial before beginning the first
and second “MODFLOW – Conceptual Model Approach” tutorials.
1.1 Outline
Here are the steps of this tutorial:
1. Create a 3D grid.
2 Description of Problem
The problem that this tutorial will be solving is shown in Figure 1. This problem is a
modified version of the sample problem described near the end of the MODFLOW
Reference Manual. Three aquifers will be simulated using three layers in the
computational grid. The grid covers a square region measuring 75000 feet by 75000 feet.
The grid will consist of 15 rows and 15 columns, each cell measuring 5000 feet by 5000
feet in plan view. For simplicity, the elevation of the top and bottom of each layer will be
flat. The hydraulic conductivity values shown are for the horizontal direction. For the
vertical direction, the tutorial will use some fraction of the horizontal hydraulic
conductivity.
Flow into the system is due to infiltration from precipitation and is defined as recharge in
the input. Flow out of the system is due to buried drain tubes, discharging wells (not
shown on the diagram), and a lake, which is represented by a constant head boundary on
the left. Starting heads will be set equal to zero, and a steady state solution will be
computed.
Unconfined
Confined
Confined
3 Getting Started
Do as follows to get started:
2. If GMS is already running, select the File | New command to ensure that the
program settings are restored to their default state.
4 Units
At this point, it is possible to define the units used in the model. The units that are
chosen will be applied to edit fields in the GMS interface to remind us of the proper units
for each parameter.
2. For Length, click the “…” Button next to the length field.
3. In the Display Projection dialog, set the units for both horizontal and vertical to
“Meters.”
4. Click OK.
5. For Time, enter “d” (for days). Ignore the other units (they are not used for flow
simulations).
1. In the Project Explorer, right-click on the empty space and then, from the pop-up
menu, select the New | 3D Grid command.
2. In the section entitled X-dimension, enter “22860” for the Length value, and “15”
for the Number cells value.
3. In the section entitled Y-dimension, enter “22860” for the Length value, and “15”
for the Number cells value.
4. In the section entitled Z-dimension, enter “3” for the Number cells value.
Later, the user will enter the top and bottom elevations for each layer of the grid. Thus,
the thickness of the cells in the z directions entered here will not affect the MODFLOW
computations.
The grid should appear in the window in plan view. A simplified representation of the
grid should also appear in the Mini-Grid Toolbar.
Packages
First, select the packages.
The MODFLOW Packages dialog will appear. It is used to specify which of the packages
will be used to set up the model. The Basic package is always used, and, therefore, it
cannot be turned off. To select the other packages, do as follows:
2. In the Optional packages section, turn on the Drain (DRN1), Recharge (RCH1),
and Well (WEL1) options.
3. In the Solver section, select the Stongly Impl. Proc. (SIP1) package.
The IBOUND Array dialog displays the values of the IBOUND array in a spreadsheet-
like fashion, one layer at a time. The edit field in the upper left corner of the dialog can
be used to change the current layer. For this problem, all of the values in the array need
to be greater than zero, except for the left column of the top two layers, which should be
less than zero. By default, the values in the array should already be greater than zero.
Therefore, changing the values for the constant head cells is all that needs to be done.
This can be accomplished by entering a value of -1 for each of the thirty constant head
cells. However, there is another way to edit the IBOUND array that is much simpler for
this case. This method will be described later in the tutorial. For now, leave all of the
cells active.
4. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “60,” and select the OK button.
GMS forces the top of a layer to be at the same location as the bottom of the layer above.
Thus, it is only necessary to enter the bottom elevations of all the layers now and the tops
of the layers will be set automatically.
9. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “-45,” and select the OK button.
12. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “-120,” and select the OK button.
15. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “-215,” and select the OK button.
17. Select the OK button to exit the MODFLOW Global/Basic Package dialog
Starting Heads
The Starting Heads array is used to establish an initial head value when performing a
transient simulation. Since the user is computing a steady state simulation, the initial
head for each cell shouldn't make a difference in the final solution. However, the closer
the starting head values are to the final head values, the more quickly MODFLOW will
converge to a solution. Furthermore, for certain types of layers, if the starting head
values are too low, MODFLOW may interpret the cells as being dry. For the problem at
hand, the initial values are set to 60 because the Starting heads equal grid top elevation
toggle is turned on.
The Starting Heads array is also used to establish the head values associated with
constant head cells. For this problem, the constant head values should be zero. Since all
of the starting head values are already 60 by default, it will be necessary to make these
changes later in the tutorial.
The grid appears very thin. To make things easier, increase the Z magnification so that
the grid appears stretched in the vertical direction:
2. Change the column to “1” in the Mini-Grid Toolbar and hit the TAB key.
Notice that the user is now viewing column number one (the leftmost column).
3. Drag a box around all of the cells in the top two layers of the grid.
3. In the 3D Grid Cell Properties dialog, change the IBOUND option to “Specified
head.”
Notice that a symbol is displayed in the cells that were edited, indicating that the cells
are constant head cells.
3. Choose the up arrow to the right of the layer field in the upper left corner of the
dialog to cycle through the layers.
Notice that the leftmost column of cells in the top two layers both have a value of -1.
Most of the MODFLOW input data can be edited in GMS using either a spreadsheet
dialog such as this, or by selecting a set of cells and entering a value directly, whichever
is most convenient.
3. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “15” and click OK.
7. In the Layer Value dialog, enter a value of “10” and click OK.
1. Select the up arrow to the right of the layer edit field in the Layer Data section to
switch to layer “2.”
2. Using the Constant Layer button, enter the following values for layer 2:
Parameter Value
Horizontal Hydraulic Conductivity 0.9 m/d
Vertical Anisotropy 5
1. Switch to layer 3 and, using the Constant Layer button, enter the following
values:
Parameter Value
Horizontal Hydraulic Conductivity 2 m/d
Vertical Anisotropy 5
This completes the data entry for the LPF Package dialog.
3. In the Grid Value dialog, enter a value of “0.0009,” and click OK.
First, select the cells on columns 2-10 of row 8. To select the cells, do the following:
2. Notice that as the user moves the cursor across the grid, the ijk indices of the cell
beneath the cursor are displayed in the Edit Window at the bottom of the screen,
as shown in Figure 3.
4. Hold down the Shift key to invoke the multi-select mode and select the cells on
columns 3-10 of the same row as the cell that was already selected (Figure 4).
Z
X
1. Right-click in the graphics window on the selected cells, and from the pop-up
menu select the Sources/Sinks command.
3. Select the Add BC button. This adds a new instance of a drain to each of the
selected cells.
At this point, the user must enter an elevation and a conductance for the selected drains.
The drains all have the same conductance but the elevations are not all the same.
4. In the MODFLOW Sources/Sinks dialog, enter the following values for the
elevations and conductances of the drains:
ID Elevation Conductance
107 0 7430
108 0 7430
109 3 7430
110 6 7430
111 9 7430
112 15 7430
113 20 7430
114 27 7430
115 30 7430
1. While holding down the Ctrl key, select the cells shown in Figure 5.
2. Right-click on one of the selected cells and select the Sources/Sinks command.
3. In the MODFLOW Sources/Sinks dialog, select Wells from the list on the left.
5. Enter a Flow value of “-12230” for all the wells (a negative value signifies
extraction).
2. While holding down the Ctrl key, select the cells are shown in Figure 6.
Z
X
3. Right-click on one of the selected cells and select the Sources/Sinks command.
4. In the MODFLOW Sources/Sinks dialog, select Wells from the list on the left.
Z
X
4. In the MODFLOW Sources/Sinks dialog, select Wells from the list on the left.
Now that all of the wells have been defined, it is possible to go back to the top layer.
9. Select the down arrow twice in the Mini-Grid Toolbar to view layer 1.
A list of messages is shown for each of the MODFLOW input packages. If the user has
done everything correctly, the packages should have no errors. When an error exists, if
the user selects or highlights the error, when appropriate, GMS selects the cells or layers
associated with the problem.
14 Running MODFLOW
It is now possible to run MODFLOW:
At this point, MODFLOW is launched in a new window. The super file name is passed
to MODFLOW as a command line argument. MODFLOW opens the file and begins the
simulation. As the simulation proceeds, the user should see some text output in the
window reporting the solution progress.
2. In the Dataset Contour Options – 3D Grid – Head dialog, change the Contour
Method to Color Fill.
3. In the Dataset Contour Options – 3D Grid – Head dialog, turn on the Legend
option.
16 Zone Budget
Zone Budget is a program developed by the USGS (Harbaugh 1990) that is used to
compute subregional water budgets for MODFLOW groundwater flow models. GMS has
incorporated a similar flow budget reporting tool. In GMS, the user defines zones by
assigning a Zone Budget ID to cells. Once the zones are defined, a report can be
generated that shows the flow budget for the zone. The report also includes a component
that shows the flow in/out to adjacent zones.
3. Be sure to look at the second layer of the 3D grid. Adjust the layer by using the
up or down arrow in the Mini-Grid Toolbar to view layer 2 of the grid.
7. Enter “2” for the Zone budget ID and select the OK button.
8. Switch to layer 3 of the grid by selecting the down arrow in the Mini-Grid
Toolbar.
9. Repeat steps 4 through 7, except, this time, enter “3” for the Zone budget ID.
The user is currently viewing the report for the first zone (the top layer of the grid). The
report is divided into two sections: flow into the zone and flow out of the zone. Every
source/sink that is present in the model is listed in the report with a flow value. In
addition to the sources/sinks, there is a field for the amount of flow that goes between
zones.
The user may also want to view the report for zone 3.
17 Conclusion
This concludes the tutorial. Here are the key points of this tutorial:
It is possible to specify which units are being used and GMS will display the
units next to input fields to help the user input the appropriate value. GMS does
not do any unit conversions for the user.
The desired MODFLOW packages for use in the model can be selected by
choosing the MODFLOW | Global Options command and clicking the
Packages button.
Most MODFLOW array data can be edited in two ways: via a spreadsheet or by
selecting grid cells and using the MODFLOW | Advanced | Cell Properties
command.
Wells, drains, etc. can be created and edited by selecting the grid cell(s) and
choosing the MODFLOW | Advanced | Sources/Sinks command or by right-
clicking on a selected cell and selecting the Sources/Sinks command from the
pop up menu.
The Model Checker can be used to analyze the input data and check for errors.
A flow budget report can be generated for a sub-region of the model by assigning
Zone budget IDs to the grid and then using the Flow Budget command.
In Ortho mode, only one row, column, or layer of the 3D grid is visible at a time.