Abstract
This paper focuses on physics and mathematics behind the numerical software. Our calculations show that the temperature variation recorded in the Great Artesian Basin significantly affects thermodynamic properties of groundwater such as dynamic viscosity and density. Dynamic viscosity varies by a factor of four within the temperature difference typical of the basin, and water density variation may produce a convective motion in higher permeability regions. We suggest to treat the flow in the higher permeability regions as a non-isothermal flow. A rigorous approach to modelling such a flow will be to invoke the continuity equation for a variable density fluid, the energy equation and the momentum equation in the form of the generalised Darcy's law. Accordingly, numerical packages for simulating non-isothermal flows in porous media should be applied.
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