Simulation of seepage flows from channels

Abstract

Plane steady-state seepage in a homogeneous isotropic ground from channels through a layer of soil with an underlying highly permeable pressurized water-bearing layer when the ground possesses capillarity and there is evaporation from the free surface is considered in a hydrodynamic formulation. To investigate it, a mixed multiparametric boundary-value problem of the theory of analytical functions is formulated, which is solved using the Polubarinova-Kochina method and conformal mapping of the regions of a special form, typical of problems of underground hydromechanics. On the basis of this model, an algorithm for calculating the capillary spreading of water and seepage flow is developed in situations when the ground capillarity is taken into account in the seepage of water from channels, as well as evaporation from the free surface of the ground waters, and also backwater of the underlying highly permeable stratum. Using the exact analytical relations obtained and numerical calculations, a hydrodynamic analysis of the structure and characteristic features of the simulated process, and also of the effect of all the physical parameters of the system on the seepage characteristics, is carried out. Limit and special cases, related to the absence of one or two of the three factors, characterizing the simulated process are considered: the ground capillarity, evaporation from the free surface, and also backwater of the underlying highly permeable water-bearing layer. The results of the calculations are compared with similar seepage characteristics with a similar scheme, but in which the flow region is underlaid by an impenetrable base.