Finite strip method for groundwater modelling in a parallel computing environment

The finite strip method has been shown to apply to many problems in continuum mechanics. Within the constraints of the method, it has been shown to be superior to the finite element method in terms of data preparation, program complexity and execution time. The finite strip method has been recently extended to groundwater flow problems. The orthogonality of appropriately selected shape functions gives the finite strip method its computational efficiency. The uncoupling achieved from this orthogonality also produces a numerical method which is intrinsically parallel. Consequently, additional efficiencies can be obtained in a parallel environment. Numerical studies of the finite strip method to model a two‐dimensional groundwater flow problem demonstrate the accuracy of the solution and the superior performance of the numerical procedure in a parallel environment.