Lessening the leakage of surface water can reduce the waste of water resources and ground water pollution. To solve the problem that Mengxi River could not store water enduringly, geology investigation, theoretical analysis, experiment research, and numerical simulation analysis were carried out. Firstly, the seepage mathematical model was established based on unsaturated seepage theory; secondly, the experimental equipment for testing hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soil was developed to obtain the curve of two-phase flow. The numerical simulation of leakage in natural conditions proves the previous inference and leakage mechanism of river. At last, the seepage control capacities of different impervious materials were compared by numerical simulations. According to the engineering actuality, the impervious material was selected. The impervious measure in this paper has been proved to be effectible by hydrogeological research today.
There are problems of leakage in mass of rivers, lakes, reservoir, and irrigation canals, which bring serious waste of water. The ground water and soil will be polluted when the industrial sewage leaks into soil. Most of the areas of earth surface are located in the arid or semiarid area, so soil in most projects is unsaturated [
Study was focused on analytical solution of unsaturated seepage in the 1970s. With the popularization of computer technology, numerical method of unsaturated seepage appeared in the 1980s. From the 1990s, researchers realized that permeability played an important role in improving accuracy of numerical method. The permeability of unsaturated soil had become a hotspot [
In 1856, H. Darcy conducted permeability test of saturated soil and developed Darcy’s law 1. Richards thought that Darcy’s law was applicative for unsaturated soil but the permeability coefficient was variable, which was the function of moisture volume percentage 2 [
While ignoring the deformation of unsaturated porous medium, according to principle of mass conservation [
The Mengxi River is located in Chengdu Plain which is in the southwest of China. The Mengxi River is artificial river in the campus of Southwest Petroleum University, whose length is 2 kilometers. The biggest width of river is 15 meters and the smallest width is 2 meters. The water level was 5 meters at first and then leakage phenomenon was serious. The satellite imagery of Mengxi River is shown in Figure
Satellite imagery.
Satellite imagery of study area.
In order to measure the topographical map of the Mengxi River, more than 100 points were measured. The place of measuring points and boreholes is shown in Figure
Arrangement plan of measuring points and boreholes.
Interpolated topographic map.
The three-dimensional geological model was established on the basis of topographic map and geologic examination. The numerical calculation model is shown in Figure
Numerical calculation model.
The double-ring infiltrometer is common instrument to measure permeability of unsaturated soil on the spot. The double-ring infiltrometer has a higher accuracy than single-ring infiltrometer and test hole. A new simple apparatus of double-ring infiltrometer was developed to test the permeability of soil and 24 pairs of trials were conducted. The simple apparatus is shown in Figure
Experimental data.
Volume of inject water/mL | Time/min | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100 | |
Number 1 hole | 235 | 250 | 180 | 200 | 220 | 250 | 220 | 225 | 200 | 190 |
Number 2 hole | 180 | 260 | 275 | 270 | 265 | 275 | 270 | 280 | 270 | 270 |
Number 3 hole | 170 | 260 | 270 | 260 | 245 | 300 | 290 | 150 | 200 | 225 |
Number 4 hole | 155 | 205 | 215 | 210 | 190 | 185 | 190 | 175 | 180 | 170 |
Simple apparatus of double-ring infiltrometer.
The gas-water two-phase flow experiments of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity were carried out by testing instrument of state key laboratory of oil and gas reservoir geology and exploitation, and the characteristic curves of unsaturated seepage were acquired by the experiments. In numerical simulation, instead of the curve of conductivity versus matric suction and the curve volumetric water content of soil versus matric suction, we use the relative permeability curves of water and gas, which simplified the computational process and improved the speed of calculation. On the other hand, the leakage quantity was acquired accurately by integral calculation of seepage velocity. Comparing the calculation result with data of hydrologic exploration, the simulation results are very close to actual situation.
As referred to the flow of gas and water in the porous media, the velocity of each phase depends on the their relative volume, which can be described as the relative permeability curve of water and gas, through the equipment (shown in Figure
The sketch of equipment.
The relative permeability of water versus gas.
The water saturation and pore pressure change with the leakage of water. The initial water saturation of model is 32% and the initial pore pressure is 55 kPa, supposing the water level of the Mengxi River is 3 meter.
Figure
Initial water saturation distribution.
The water saturation after 100 days.
The water saturation after 245 days.
Figure
The pore pressure after 100 days.
The pore pressure after 245 days.
Figure
The flow vector of water under river.
In order to harness the leakage and decrease seepage, the performance of seepage prevention of asphalt and antiseepage film was compared in the study. The biggest water saturation is 51% when the river bed and bank have a superstratum of asphalt shown in Figure
Water saturation with asphalt superstratum.
Water saturation with antiseepage film superstratum.
The reduction of water level.
The hydraulic conductivity of the soil in Mengxi River was tested by double-ring infiltrometer. The total station was applied to measure the topography of the ground surface surrounding the river. The geological model of Mengxi River was set up by the combination of strata data. Based on seepage mechanics, fluid mechanics, and soil mechanics, the model considering unsaturated seepage of the ground water was established, combined with the hydrological and geological conditions of Mengxi River; the numerical model was built. The leakage of water from Mengxi River was simulated and the results indicate that the leakage was serious. After 245 days, the saturation of the soil under the river increased by 33%, from 32% to 65%; the saturation of soil in the riverbed and slope goes up obviously. The asphalt and impermeable membrane were paved, respectively, to prevent the leakage of water; both of them can reduce the water loss in river, but the effect of the latter is better than the former; when the impermeable membrane was used as waterproof material, the maximal value of soil’s saturation under the river only reached 37.4% which is far below the saturation of soil on condition of asphalt as waterproof material.
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
This work was financially supported by the Open Foundation Project from State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation of Southwest Petroleum University (Grant no. PLN1131), reconstruction method of pore scaled model for coal bed rock (Grant no. KSZ1211), effective development technology of ultralow permeability reservoir (Grant no. 2011ZX05013004), the Key Project (Grant no. 13ZA0189) from Education Department of Sichuan Province, the Open Experiment Project Leakage Analysis and Prevention Methods of the MENGXI River Located in Southwest Petroleum University (Grant no. KSZ1128) from Southwest Petroleum University, Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51074137 and no. 51174170), major projects (09ZA139, 12ZA197) from the Education Department of Sichuan Province, the key project (Grant no. 2012XJZ027) from Science and Technology Fund of Southwest Petroleum University, and the SWPU Geotechnical Mechanics and Engineering Science & Technology Innovation (Cultivation) Youth Team (no. 2013XJZT006).