Electron. J. Diff. Eqns., Vol. 2003(2003), No. 44, pp. 1-27.

On the behavior of the interface separating fresh and salt groundwater in a heterogeneous coastal aquifer

Samia Challal & Abdeslem Lyaghfouri

Abstract:
We consider a flow of fresh and salt groundwater in a two-dimensional heterogeneous horizontal aquifer. Assuming the flow governed by a nonlinear Darcy law and the permeability depending only on the vertical coordinate, we show the existence of a unique monotone solution that increases (resp. decreases) with respect to the salt (resp. fresh) water discharge. For this solution we prove that the free boundary is represented by the graph $x=g(z)$ of a continuous function. Finally we prove a limit behavior at the end points of the interval of definition of $g$.

Submitted December 17, 2002. Published April 17, 2003.
Math Subject Classifications: 35Q35, 35R35, 76S05.
Key Words: Fresh-salt water, heterogeneous aquifer, nonlinear Darcy's law, monotone solution, comparison and uniqueness, continuity of the free boundary, limit behavior.

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  Samia Challal
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
P. O. Box 728, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Abdeslem Lyaghfouri
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
P. O. Box 728, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
email: lyaghfo@kfupm.edu.sa

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