For competitive reasons, inland ships as maritime ships are increasingly larger with powerful propulsive systems. The impact of this evolution on the environment is multiple. One of the major impacts is the erosion of the channel bed and the sediment suspension. This erosion phenomenon is essentially caused by the turbulent flow around the ship generated by its movement as well as its propulsive system. Hence, for a better prediction and understanding of this phenomenon, it is indispensable to simulate with great precision the flow around the ship hull and the induced shear stress at the bottom. Different ways were used in the past to estimate the shear stress at the waterway bottom. Some of these ways are empirical, analytical and numerical using shallow water models. In the present work to study the erosion phenomenon caused by the inland transport, a sedimentary transport model was developed and implemented in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model (Fluent) as external code. The coupled model was firstly verified and validated using measurements. The validated model was subsequently used to assess the influence of several parameters: depth (h) to draught (T) ratio, ship advance ratio (J), ship speed and sediment size (d₅₀). The first results show clearly that the coupled model behaves correctly and gives very satisfactory results. The impact of each parameter was compared and analyzed.

The present paper proposes the numerical solution of an inverse problem in groundwater flow (Darcy’s equation). This solution was achieved by combining a high-resolution new code HYSFLO-LBM (Hydrodynamic of Subsurface Flow by Lattice Boltzmann Method), based on LBM, to solve the direct problem, and the metaheuristic optimization algorithm CMA-ES ES (Covariance Matrix Adaptation-Evolution Strategy) to solve the optimization step. The integrated optimization algorithm which resulted from this combination, HYSFLO-LBM/CMA-ES, was applied to the hydrogeological experimental site of Beauvais (Northern France), instrumented by a set of sensors distributed over 20 hydrogeological wells. Hydrogeological parameters measured by the sensors are necessary to understand the aquifer functioning and to serve as input data for the identification of the transmissivity field by the HYSFLO-LBM/CMA-ES code. Results demonstrated an excellent concordance between the integrated optimization algorithm and hydrogeological applied methods (pumping test and magnetic resonance sounding). The spatial distribution of the transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity are related to the heterogeneous distribution of aquifer formations. The LBM and CMA-ES were chosen for their proven excellent performance and lesser cost, in terms of both money and time, unlike the geophysical survey and pumping test. The model can be used and developed as a decision support tool for integrated water resources management in the region.

The solution of inverse problems in groundwater flow has been massively invested by several researchers around the world. This type of problem has been formulated by a constrained optimization problem and this constraint is none other than the direct problem (DP) itself. Thus, solving algorithms are developed that simultaneously solve the direct problem (Darcy’s equation) and the associated optimization problem. Several papers have been published in the literature using optimization methods based on computation of the objective function gradients. This type of method suffers from the inability to provide a global optimum. Similarly, they also have the disadvantage of not being applicable to objective functions of discontinuous derivatives. This paper is proposed to avoid these disadvantages. Indeed, for the optimization phase, we use random search‐based methods that do not use derivative computations, but based on a search step followed only by evaluation of the objective function as many times as necessary to the convergence towards the global optimum. Among the different algorithms of this type of methods, we adopted the genetic algorithm (GA). On the other hand, the numerical solution of the direct problem is accomplished by the CVFEM discretization method (Control Volume Finite Element Method) which ensures the mass conservation in a natural way by its mathematical formulation. The resulting computation code HySubF‐CVFEM (Hydrodynamic of Subsurface Flow by Control Volume Finite Element Method) solves the Darcy equation in a heterogeneous porous medium. Thus, this paper describes the description of the integrated optimization algorithm called HySubF‐CVFEM/GA that has been successfully implemented and validated successfully compared to a schematic flow case offering analytical solutions. The results of this comparison are qualified of excellent accuracy. To identify the transmissivity field of the realistic study area, the code HySubF‐CVFEM/GA was applied to the coastal “Chaouia” groundwater located in Western of Morocco. This aquifer of high heterogeneity is essential for water resources for the Casablanca region. Results analysis of this study has shown that the developed code is capable of providing high accuracy transmissivity fields, thus representing the heterogeneity observed in situ. However, in comparison with gradient method optimization the HySubF‐CVFEM/GA code converges too slowly to the optimal solution (large CPU‐time consuming). Despite this disadvantage, and given the high accuracy of the obtained results, the HySubF‐CVFEM/GA code can be recommended to solve in an efficient and effective manner the identification parameters problems in hydrogeology.