Particle tracking for face-based flux data on general polyhedral grids with applications to groundwater flow modelling

Abstract A particle tracking method based on face fluxes data calculated using finite volume methods is developed for unstructured three-dimensional polyhedral grids. The flow velocity field reconstruction on grid cells using a mixed finite element method is proposed. Cases of sinks and sources in cells as well as different cell partitionings are considered. Algorithms for streamlines and time of flight calculation are provided. Performance and convergence of the method are demonstrated on a set of reference problems.