Numerical modelling of transient contaminant migration problems in infinite porous fractured media using finite/infinite element technique. Part I: Theory

The leakage effect in porous fissured media has been considered in a general sense by introducing a new expression of the leakage term in this paper. The double porosity concept is employed and the related expressions are formulated using the upwind finite element approach. Considering the infinite extension of the problem domain, a mapped transient infinite element has been presented to simulate the far field of the infinite medium. Since the mass transfer function of the present mapped transient infinite element is dependent on both space and time variables, the mechanism of transient contaminant migration problems in infinite porous fractured media can be rigorously simulated because the property matrices of the element are evaluated at any time of interest. By comparing the current numerical results with the analytical ones, the accuracy, correctness and effectiveness of the present method have been established. Three different time discretization schemes were examined and it was found that either the central difference or the backward difference approximation is suitable for the upwind finite element simulation of transient contaminant migration problems.     

An axi-symmetric infinite element for transient radial flow problems

The formulation of an axi-symmetric infinite element for transient analysis of flow problems in unbounded domain is presented. The theoretical basis as well as the implementation of the element is discussed, and the element decay function is derived using the analytical solution of a one-dimensional axially symmetric configuration. The form of decay within the element is described as a function of both time and space, and thus the hydraulic head distribution in the far field is simulated rigorously. The accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed element are demonstrated through several numerical examples in infinite media. In general, it is shown that using the present infinite element transient flow problems in unbounded domains can be simulated effectively. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An artificial boundary approach for unbounded transient seepage problems

A new artificial boundary approach for transient seepage problems in unbounded domain is presented. The artificial boundary condition at the truncated boundary is derived from the analytical solutions for transient seepage problems in one dimension, including solutions, respectively, for flow in one‐dimensional infinite space and for radial flow in an infinite layer, and then it is tentatively applied for some two dimensional problems in addition to the one‐dimensional problems mentioned above. The boundary conditions derived relate the time‐dependent boundary flux with the time derivative of the hydraulic head at the truncated boundary, which makes the implementation much easier compared with the infinite element method. The accuracy and efficiency of the artificial boundary are validated by several numerical examples, which shows that the proposed boundary can give very good results for one‐dimensional transient seepage problems, as expected, whereas reasonable results can be also obtained for two‐dimensional problems, such as two‐dimensional axisymmetric flow and flow in an infinite plane. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parametric infinite element for seepage analysis

A set of mapping functions in the form of convergent series for an infinite element, which is capable to include the infinitely distanced constant head boundary condition from the area of disturbance (e.g. pumping), is proposed based on the asymptotic far-field behaviour of typical seepage flow problems. The derived mapping functions have been successfully used in three-dimensional point symmetric, two-dimensional axi-symmetric and one-dimensional unidirectional flow for the fixed head boundary at infinite distance. The result shows excellent agreement with analytical solution. For the first time, the mapping function of an infinite element is presented in the form of a convergent series. The infinite elements are really capable of reducing the cost and efficiency of conventional finite element analysis. Finally, a figure is also proposed to indicate the required size of the near field to obtain accurate drawdown at specified locations based on some calculations for two-dimensional radial flow case.     

Non-linear analysis of geomechanical problems using coupled finite and infinite elements

In modeling of many geomechanics problems such as underground openings, soil-foundation structure interaction problems, and in wave propagation problems through semi-infinite soil medium the soil is represented as a region of either infinite or semi-infinite extent. Numerical modeling of such problems using conventional finite elements involves a truncation of the far field in which the infinite boundary is terminated at a finite distance. In these problems, appropriate boundary conditions are introduced to approximate the solution of the infinite or semi-infinite boundaries as closely as possible. However, the task of positioning the finite boundary in conventional finite element discretization and the definition of the boundary and its conditions is very delicate and depends on the modeller's skill and intuition. Moreover, such a choice is influenced by the size of the domain to be discretized. Consequently, the dimensions of the global matrices and the time required for solution of the problem will increase considerably and also selection of the arbitrary location of truncated boundary may lead to erroneous result. In order to over come these problems, mapped infinite elements have been developed by earlier researchers (Simoni and Schrefier, 1987). In the present work the applicability of infinite element technique is examined for different geomechanics problems. A computer program INFEMEP is developed based on the conventional finite element and mapped infinite element technique. It is then validated using selected problems such as strip footing and circular footing. CPU time taken to obtain solutions using finite element approach and infinite element approach was estimated and presented to show the capability of coupled modeling in improving the computational efficiency. Mesh configurations of different sizes were used to explore the enhancement of both computational economy and solution accuracy achieved by incorporation of infinite elements to solve elastic and elasto-plastic problems in semi-infinite/finite domain as applied to geotechnical engineering. © Rapid Science Ltd. 1998     

城区渗流场中建筑物间缝隙有限元简化分析方法

为解决城区渗流场中缝隙多、区域的大尺度与物体的小尺寸相差了几个数量级,有限元分析上存在的困难,根据缝隙流动的解析解,经适当地简化,将缝隙附近的渗流场分为缝外区和缝内区两部分,将缝外区流动简化为一个半径为半缝宽的井流,缝内区流动简化为一个均匀流。引入附加阻力系数,考虑缝隙出入口附近的由于过水断面突然变化而引的局部水头损失,并得到附加阻力系数的表达式。利用该式,结合渗流场中井点水头的修正公式,得到了能有效模拟渗流场中建筑物间缝隙的修正线单元公式。利用该线单元编制了相关程序模拟城区渗流场中的缝隙,使得缝隙出入口处的网格尺寸为缝隙两边的建筑物边长1/3～1/4时就能得到较为准确的结果,避免了区域性渗流场中小尺寸物体的网格划分问题,通过算例验证了该公式的精度和边界适应性。     

城区渗流场中建筑物间缝隙有限元简化分析方法

为解决城区渗流场中缝隙多、区域的大尺度与物体的小尺寸相差了几个数量级，有限元分析上存在的困难，根据缝隙流动的解析解，经适当地简化，将缝隙附近的渗流场分为缝外区和缝内区两部分，将缝外区流动简化为一个半径为半缝宽的井流，缝内区流动简化为一个均匀流。引入附加阻力系数，考虑缝隙出入口附近的由于过水断面突然变化而引的局部水头损失，并得到附加阻力系数的表达式。利用该式，结合渗流场中井点水头的修正公式，得到了能有效模拟渗流场中建筑物间缝隙的修正线单元公式。利用该线单元编制了相关程序模拟城区渗流场中的缝隙，使得缝隙出入口处的网格尺寸为缝隙两边的建筑物边长1/3～1/4时就能得到较为准确的结果，避免了区域性渗流场中小尺寸物体的网格划分问题，通过算例验证了该公式的精度和边界适应性。     

含节理黄土渗流数值模型研究

本文建立了在考虑黄土中有节理存在时,水分场数值计算的有限元方法。采用质量守恒的观点推导了质点元中饱和度的变化与流速的关系。进而利用达西定律得到以水头为变量的渗流基本方程。针对黄土垂直节理的渗流特点,确定了节理渗流基本方程中的参数。采用四边形等参元,利用Galerkin加权余量法建立考虑节理影响的黄土非饱和渗流的有限元形式。对局部水头边界条件下的黄土节理二维水分入渗问题进行了数值分析。结果表明,节理对黄土场地湿润峰的迁移有很大影响。     

Sinusoidal oscillations radiating from a cylindrical source in thermal conduction or groundwater flow: Closed‐form solutions

The diffusion equation governs thermal conduction and groundwater flow phenomena. In this paper, we study the two‐dimensional radial propagation of a sinusoidal perturbation radiating from a cylindrical source within an infinite slab of homogeneous material. The solution of this problem has several applications. For instance, it can be used to determine the hydraulic diffusivity of the subsurface based on measurements of the hydraulic head around a vertical well during its development. For thermal problems, it can be used to determine the thermal diffusivity based on measurements of the temperature distribution around a cylindrical heat source generating a sinusoidal power per unit length. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analytical solution of this problem and we compare these solutions with numerical solutions. Two approximate analytical solutions, which can be relevant in practice, are also presented. Finally, we give an upper bound for the survival time of the transient part of the solution and we provide an estimate of the radius of influence of the sinusoidal solicitation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

半无限含水层中带衬砌隧洞渗流解析研究

现有关于半无限含水层中隧洞渗流的解析解不能考虑衬砌部分排水的特性。假定土体和衬砌均为饱和均匀连续介质,采用土体与衬砌分算;利用复变函数解决孔口问题基本方法,对土体采用共形映射坐标变换,将土体中的渗流方程转换为与衬砌部分类似的二维Laplace方程圆环域的Dirichlet问题;通过Fourier解法,根据边界条件并利用流量连续条件,求得半无限空间中带衬砌隧洞渗流量和衬砌周边水头解析解答。分析了径深比、土体与衬砌渗透系数相对值、内壁水压力等因素对渗流量和衬砌周边水头的影响,并与数值算例进行了比较。结果表明,对浅埋隧洞该解析解仍具有较好的精度,是简便、实用的计算方法。     

A high‐frequency open boundary for transient seepage analyses of semi‐infinite layers by extending the scaled boundary finite element method

A high‐frequency open boundary has been developed for the transient seepage analyses of semi‐infinite layers with a constant depth. The scaled boundary finite element equation of pore water pressure is formulated first in the frequency domain. With the eigenvalue problem, the equation can be decoupled into modal equations whose modal dynamic permeability equation can be determined. The continued fraction technique is adopted to formulate the continued fraction solution in the frequency domain. All constants in the solution are determined recursively at the high‐frequency limit. By introducing auxiliary variables and the continued fraction solution to the relationship between the prescribed seepage flow and the pore water pressure in the frequency domain, the open boundary condition is obtained. After transformed to the time domain, the open boundary condition is expressed as a system of fractional differential equations. No convolution integral is required. The accuracy of the analysis results increases with the increasing orders of continued fraction. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

弹性介质分向插值无限元

无限元是一种有效的人工边界,可用于处理弹性波的传播问题。在传统动力无限元的基础上,提出了一种采用分向插值技术的新型动力无限元,详细地推导了这种无限元的形函数,建立了完全解析形式的刚度矩阵,以提高计算效率,采用该无限元边界,计算了弹性介质中的线源Lamb问题,通过对比解析解答的地基表面位移,验证了该无限元的有效性。算例分析表明,采用此类无限元时,有限元单元边长建议取不超过1/8剪切波波长,网格边界到激励源点的距离宜取5倍剪切波波长。无限单元中的幅值衰减系数对计算结果影响甚微,建议取较小值。     

均质非饱和土一维稳态流水头垂直分布的解析解

渗流场水头分布计算是进行渗流量和渗流水力坡降计算的基础,准确、有效地求取渗流场水头分布是渗流计算的关键环节。对均质非饱和土体一维稳态流的流动方程进行分析,考虑到渗透系数是与基质吸力相关的函数,通过数学变换,给出了稳定渗流场的解析通式,并基于渗透性函数中的Gardner模型,给出了非饱和土一维稳态流水头垂直分布的解析解。该解析通式表明,均质非饱和土一维稳态流水头垂直分布主要受地表水头、深度和流动率3个因素控制。分别计算了一维稳态蒸发条件下粉土和黏土两种典型土类水头沿垂直方向的分布。计算结果表明：稳态蒸发条件下粉土层和黏土层内的水头分布表现出相似的变化规律,即自地表至地下水位处随着土层深度的增加,水头分布呈现出加速递减的趋势;在相同的蒸发条件下,对于相同深度处的黏土和粉土而言,黏土层内水头更高些;对同一种土类而言,在较大的蒸发状态下同一深度处土层内水头更高。反之,则较低。     

Comparative analysis of some geomechanics problems using finite and infinite element methods

Four classical geomechanics problems involving semi-infinite linear elastic media have been solved numerically using recently developed mapped infinite elements coupled to finite elements.The effect of the remoteness of the truncated boundary and the location of infinite element coupling on solution accuracy has been studied. The results of conventional analyses using finite elements over a relatively large but restricted region are compared to the coupled analyses. Comparison of the results shows that for the same number of degrees of freedom the performance of the coupled solutions is superior to the conventional approach with respect to accuracy of solution and computational efficiency. Finally, some general guidelines are proposed for the efficient numerical solution of these types of problems using the coupled finite/infinite element approach.     

A local artificial boundary for transient seepage problems with unsteady boundary conditions in unbounded domains

Numerical analysis of transient seepage in unbounded domains with unsteady boundary conditions requires a more sophisticated artificial boundary approach to deal with the infinite character of the domain. To that end, a local artificial boundary is established by simplifying a global artificial boundary. The global artificial boundary conditions (ABCs) at the truncated boundary are derived from analytical solutions for one‐dimensional axisymmetric diffusion problems. By applying Laplace transforms and introducing some specially defined auxiliary variables, the global ABCs are simplified to local ABCs to significantly enhance the computational efficiency. The proposed local ABCs are implemented in a finite element computer program so that the solutions to various seepage problems can be calculated. The proposed approach is first verified by the computation of a one‐dimensional radial flow problem and then tentatively applied to more general two‐dimensional cylindrical problems and planar problems. The solutions obtained using the local ABCs are compared with those obtained using a large element mesh and using a previously proposed local boundary. This comparison demonstrates the satisfactory performance and obvious superiority of the newly established boundary to the other local boundary. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于蒙特卡罗随机有限元法的三维随机渗流场研究

通过建立改进Latin超立方抽样和对偶抽样相结合的复合抽样法,以提高Monte Carlo方法的计算效率,并将其引入Monte Carlo随机有限元（MSFEM）。基于三维有限元模型,采用MCSFEM对山坪土石坝进行随机渗流场分析,研究渗透系数和水头边界条件的随机特性对渗流场的干扰,进行变异系数和抽样次数的敏感性分析。最后,对渗流场的求解量进行概型分析。研究表明：总水头势、流速及渗透体积力的变异性随着渗透系数随机性的增强而变大;复合抽样法既能有效加快Monte Carlo的收敛速度,又能降低样本间的统计相关性,说明了该方法的实用性与有效性;当渗透系数服从正态分布时,渗流场中所取结点的水头和坡降也服从正态分布。     

低渗透岩体饱和渗流研究进展

低渗透介质中的水流会影响水文地质系统和地球化学系统的演化,影响石油和矿藏的形成。低渗透介质在废弃物的处置和填埋、工程安全以及环境变化方面都是非常重要的。长期以来,人们在分析中一直以达西定律为基础,却没有在符合实际的低压力梯度下对其进行验证。由于低渗透介质中的水文地质条件的复杂性以及在测量水头和孔隙流体取样上的难度,分析比较困难。通过对低渗透介质饱和渗流研究的回顾,就非达西流、多因素作用下的耦合渗流以及渗透和超滤现象进行了讨论,对影响和阻碍低渗透渗流研究的因素进行探讨,并就开展进一步研究提出了相应的建议。     

Using zero-thickness elements to simulate suspended cut-off walls in a regional seepage field

A regional seepage field is usually simulated by 2D horizontal seepage finite element method (FEM). However, the Dupuit assumption means that it does not take into account hydraulic head loss caused by vertical flow. In order to simulate a regional seepage field containing suspended cut-off walls by 2D horizontal FEM without any loss of accuracy and efficiency, a zero-thickness element is introduced. The zero-thickness element is used to model suspended cut-off walls and take into account the hydraulic head loss caused by vertical flow near the walls. The matrix equation is deduced. The deduction is based on the resistance coefficient method and the analytical solution of flow near suspended cut-off walls under plane condition. The accuracy of the method is assessed by comparing with 3D FEM results. These coincide with each other both in discharge and hydraulic head. The method is an effective way to simulate a suspended cut-off wall in a regional seepage field with 2D horizontal FEM.     

A Simple Approach to Account for Radial Flow and Boundary Conditions When Kriging Hydraulic Head Fields for Confined Aquifers

The estimation and mapping of realistic hydraulic head fields, hence of flow paths, is a major goal of many hydrogeological studies. The most widely used method to obtain reliable head fields is the inverse approach. This approach relies on the numerical approximation of the flow equation and requires specifying boundary conditions and the transmissivity of each grid element. Boundary conditions are often unknown or poorly known, yet they impose a strong signature on the head fields obtained by inverse analysis. A simpler alternative to the inverse approach is the direct kriging of the head field using the measurements obtained at observation wells. The kriging must be modified to incorporate the available information. Use of the dual kriging formalism enables simultaneously estimating the head field, the aquifer mean transmissivity, and the regional hydraulic gradient from head data in steady or transient state conditions. In transient state conditions, an estimate of the storage coefficient can be obtained. We test the approach on simple analytical cases, on synthetic cases with solutions obtained numerically using a finite element flow simulator, and on a real aquifer. For homogeneous aquifers, infinite or bounded, the kriging estimate retrieves the exact solution of the head field, the exact hydrogeological parameters and the flow net. With heterogeneous aquifers, kriging accurately estimates the head field with prediction errors of the same magnitude as typical head measurement errors. The transmissivities are also accurately estimated by kriging. Moreover, if inversion is required, the kriged head along boundaries can be used as realistic boundary conditions for flow simulation.     

基于概率分析的渗流计算方法及应用

以随机理论为基础,把岩土体渗透系数视为随机变量。根据渗透系数的概率分布,把岩土体视为按概率分布的不同渗透系数介质的混合体,不同渗透系数介质对渗流场产生贡献的大小由其概率的大小来确定。在确定岩土体渗透系数后,通过渗流方程就可求出不同渗透系数作用下区域内的水头分布和断面流量,再根据渗透系数的概率大小进行叠加,求出整个区域内的水头分布和断面流量。工程实例表明,该方法较确定性有限元法误差小,可作为渗流计算的又一方法用于渗流分析。