| Abstract: | A characteristic finite element (CFE) algorithm for modelling contaminant transport problems coupled with non‐linear competitive adsorption is presented. An alternative algorithm, termed as the transport‐equilibrium Petrov–Galerkin (TEPG) methods in this paper, is also presented for comparison. Through analyses of a number of examples with Peclet number ranging from zero to infinity, it is shown that the CFE algorithm is very competitive with the middle–point TEPG method in terms of accuracy, stability and efficiency. The fully explicit and fully implicit TEPG methods are found to be less appropriate for transport problems coupled with non‐linear equilibrium equations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
