Discharge Sections

A Discharge Section in RS2 is a user-defined line segment or polyline, through which the volumetric flow rate across the line segment(s) will be calculated during a groundwater seepage analysis.

• A Discharge Section is created with the Add Discharge Section option in the RS2 Model program.
• Discharge sections can only be defined if the Groundwater Method = Steady State FEA or Transient FEA in Project Settings.

After the seepage analysis has been computed, if any Discharge Sections were defined, the flow rate through the Discharge Section(s) will be displayed in the RS2 Interpret program. An arrow indicates the direction of flow, and the value of the average flow rate is displayed, as shown below. If a discharge section is a polyline, RS2 will calculate the flow through each segment of the polyline.

Volumetric flow rate through Discharge Section (green line segment)

NOTE: Discharge Sections must be defined in the RS2 Model program (i.e. prior to analysis), rather than Interpret (i.e. post analysis), because the flow rate calculation is carried out during the finite element analysis.

Display of Discharge Sections

A Discharge Section is displayed as a green line, with small circles marking the endpoints. An arrow and value indicate the direction and magnitude of flow through each segment.

In the RS2 Interpret program, the display of Discharge Sections can be turned on or off in the Display Options dialog or with the toolbar shortcut. You can also right-click on a Discharge Section to toggle the visibility of the value.