Define Boundary Conditions

At this step, define the boundary conditions for the conceptual model.

Quick Overview

Background

Every conceptual model requires an appropriate set of boundary conditions to represent the system’s relationship with the surrounding systems. In the case of groundwater flow model, boundary conditions will describe the exchange of flow between the model and the external system. The following types of flow boundary conditions are supported in the conceptual modeling workflow:

•Specified Head

•River

•General Head

•Drain

•Recharge

•Evapotranspiration

•Lake

•Specified Flux

•Pumping Well

•Wall (Horizontal Flow Barrier)

•Surface water networks (SFR/LAK)

Most of the listed boundary condition types are simple boundary conditions which are specified for one or more model cells with a set number of input conditions as constant values or over a schedule of stress periods, these are considered to be so-called "standard" boundary conditions. Other boundary condition types, such as pumping wells, walls, and surface water networks are more complex in that they require additional inputs or involve more conceptual complexity than assigning values to cells. These specific boundary condition types each have their own workflow steps in the Conceptual Modeling workflow to accommodate their unique complexities.

Please Note: Wall and Surface Water Network boundary conditions are not supported when using LGR or unstructured grids.

Defining Boundary Conditions

In Visual MODFLOW Flex, the boundary condition types are separated into the following categories:

•Boundary Conditions (standard) (Constant Head, Rivers, Drains, General Head, Recharge, EVT, etc.)

•Wall (Horizontal Flow Barrier)

•Pumping Wells

•Surface Water Network Workflow

Modifying Boundary Conditions

From the Model Explorer tree, right-click on the desired boundary condition, and select Edit Boundary Condition... from the pop-up menu.

The Edit Boundary Condition dialog box will display on your screen, allowing you modify the input parameters for the boundary condition. For more information on defining parameter attributes, please refer to "Boundary Conditions Overview" section

Once modifications have been made to the input parameters, click the [Finish] button to save the changes.

Deleting Boundary Conditions

To delete a boundary condition, follow the steps below:

•From the Model Explorer tree, right-click on the desired boundary condition and select Delete from the pop-up menu.

•You will prompted with a confirmation message. Click the [Yes] button to delete the boundary condition.

Parameters for Transport Boundaries (Sinks/Sources)

If you need to include contaminant transport in your model, then the species concentrations for transport sinks/sources must also be defined while you create your conceptual boundary conditions. By default, species concentrations will be undefined when you create a new boundary condition.  An undefined value is identified by the value "-1" for the species concentration (e.g. Conc001, Conc002).  If you wish to assign a contaminant mass to a specific boundary condition object, then replace the default -1 value with a representative contaminant concentration.

Limitations

In Visual MODFLOW Flex, you can create boundary conditions in the conceptual model and in the numerical model. When you edit a conceptual boundary condition object, its corresponding numerical representation will not get updated; likewise, when you update a numerical boundary condition, its corresponding conceptual representation will not get updated. Updates to the conceptual model can be transferred to a new numerical model by (re)-converting the Conceptual Model to a specific grid.

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