Subject: How is the Mass Balance Calculated in the SWMM 5 Groundwater Component?
The groundwater component of SWMM 5 is found in the gwater.c code. It (as is all of SWMM 5) is excellently written in small functions by Lew Rossman of the EPA during the SWMM 5 development process. However, code being code sometimes it is easier to see how the code is functioning. This blog or note tries to show the mass balance local function updateMassBal
The groundwater component consists of groundwater data (gw in the equation) and aquifer data (a) in the equation. The equation for the groundwater mass balance is shown in Figure 1. The infiltration, evaporation occur only over the pervious area but the percolation out the bottom of the aquifer occurs over the whole Subcatchment.
Figure 1. Groundwater Mass Balance
