mnovotny

Claudia,
I don't understand your situation very well.  Perhaps you should attach a figure...

First, check to make sure your simulation 'initial time' is correct under the 'temporal and control data' dialog.  It is possible that you could be starting a simulation at time greater than you are expecting, which might explain why neither bc or restriction controls worked.

I had this issue the other day.  Did you smooth the mesh?  it seems that in smoothing the mesh, new elevations are interpolated at the nodes, and there is no criteria or check loop in place to keep the layers from overlapping. 

I reinterpolated the node elevations myself, from the original dataset and this seems to take care of the problem.

There are a variety of checks you can do as well in the mesh geometry 'check properties' dialog.

good luck!

Alexander,

Am I correct in my understanding that in the phreatic mode the overall conductivity, including that in the z-direction, is scaled by saturation or, at a minimum, the residual water depth?

I have had the experience that recharge (applied as inflow) seems to become trapped at the top of the aquifer if the layers below are dry, resulting in unrealistically high (10e8!) heads, and that this would occur if Kz were similarly scaled.  The same model runs fine in confined mode.

Thanks!
Milos