INVESTIGATION OF HYDROGEOLOGIC PROCESSES IN A DIPPING LAYER STRUCTURE: 1. THE FLOW BARRIER EFFECT

This modelling study analyses the flow processes contributing to the lateral diversion of flow in the unsatured zone. Flow observed in the experiment (bromide tracer) could be a result of hydraulic barriers, capillary barriers or intra-layer anisotropy. For the numerical simulations SWMS-3D, a code for simulating water flow and solute transport in a variably saturated medium, was used. Results suggest that effect of anisotropy of the hydraulic conductivity within the layers is more important than capillary and hydraulic barriers.