Welcome to the ParFlow User’s Manual!

Reed M. Maxwell 1, Stefan J. Kollet 2, Laura E. Condon 3, Steven G. Smith 4, Carol S. Woodward 5, Robert D. Falgout 6, Ian M. Ferguson 7, Nicholas Engdahl 8, Basile Hector 9, Sonya Lopez 10, James Gilbert 1, Lindsay Bearup 1, Jennifer Jefferson 1, Caitlin Collins 1, Inge de Graaf 1, Christine Pribulick 1, Chuck Baldwin, William J. Bosl 11, Richard Hornung 12, Steven Ashby 13, Ketan B. Kulkarni 14

Suggested citation: Maxwell, R.M., S.J. Kollet, L.E. Condon, S.G. Smith, C.S. Woodward, R.D. Falgout, I.M. Ferguson, N. Engdahl, B. Hector, S.R. Lopez, J. Gilbert, L. Bearup, J. Jefferson, C. Collins, I. de Graaf, C. Prubilick, C. Baldwin, W.J. Bosl, R. Hornung, S. Ashby, ParFlow User’s Manual. Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center Report, 2019

Contents:

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. How to use this manual
• 2. Getting Started
  • 2.1. ParFlow Solvers
• 3. The ParFlow System
  • 3.1. Defining the Problem
  • 3.2. Running ParFlow
  • 3.3. Restarting a Run
  • 3.4. Visualizing Output
  • 3.5. Directory of Test Cases
  • 3.6. Annotated Input Scripts
• 4. Manipulating Data: PFTools
  • 4.1. Introduction to the ParFlow TCL commands (PFTCL)
  • 4.2. PFTCL Commands
  • 4.3. Common examples using ParFlow TCL commands (PFTCL)
• 5. Model Equations
  • 5.1. Steady-State, Saturated Groundwater Flow
  • 5.2. Richards’ Equation
  • 5.3. Terrain Following Grid
  • 5.4. Flow Barriers
  • 5.5. Overland Flow
  • 5.6. Multi-Phase Flow Equations
  • 5.7. Transport Equations
  • 5.8. Notation and Units
  • 5.9. Water Balance
• 6. ParFlow Files
  • 6.1. Main Input File (.tcl)
  • 6.2. ParFlow NetCDF4 Parallel I/O
  • 6.3. ParFlow Binary Files (.pfb)
  • 6.4. ParFlow CLM Single Output Binary Files (.c.pfb)
  • 6.5. ParFlow Scattered Binary Files (.pfsb)
  • 6.6. ParFlow Solid Files (.pfsol)
  • 6.7. ParFlow Well Output File (.wells)
  • 6.8. ParFlow Simple ASCII and Simple Binary Files (.sa and .sb)
• 7. Example PFKeys Documentation
  • 7.1. Permeability
  • 7.2. Porosity

1(1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

Department of Geology and Geological Engineering and Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA. rmaxwell@mines.edu

2

Institute for Bio- and Geosciences, Agrosphere (IBG-3) and Centre for High-Performance Scientific Computing in Terrestrial Systems, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany. s.kollet@fz-juelich.de

3

Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. lecondon@email.arizona.edu

4

Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA. USA.

5

Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA. cswoodward@llnl.gov

6

Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA.

7

US Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO, USA.

8

Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA. nick.engdahl@wsu.edu

9

LTHE, Grenoble, FR.

10

California State University, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

11

Children’s Hospital Informatics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

12

Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA.

13

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA.

14

Jülich Supercomputing Centre and Centre for High-Performance Scientific Computing in Terrestrial Systems, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.

ParFlow is released under the GNU LPGL License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

http://fsf.org/.

This manual is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Copyright © 2019 Reed M. Maxwell, Stefan J. Kollet, Laura E. Condon, Ian M. Ferguson, Steven G. Smith, Carol S. Woodward, Nicholas Engdahl. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

This computer software and documentation was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.