Scaling Laws and Experimental Modelling of Contaminant Transport Mechanism through Soils in a Geotechnical Centrifuge

This paper presents the results of a research program conducted on the geotechnical centrifuge to investigate contaminant transport mechanism through the soil mass. The mechanism that governs contaminant transport through soil mass is discussed, the principles of geotechnical centrifuge modelling are outlined, and relevant scaling laws that govern the relationship between a centrifuge model and the prototype, with respect to the problem of contaminant transport, are presented. Modelling of models has been established to validate the experimental results. It has been concluded that the geotechnical centrifuge can be used as an experimental tool to simulate field scale problems.     

Analysis of fully coupled thermomechanical behaviour around a rigid cylindrical heat source buried in clay

The problem of fully coupled consolidation and heat flow around a rigid cylindrical heat source buried in clay has been studied. The governing equations of the problem are summarized in the paper and a finite element time-marching scheme to obtain an approximate solution to the governing equations is described. The stress–strain behaviour of the skeleton of the saturated soil has been represented by both a linear elastic model and the modified Cam clay soil model. The results of a limited parametric study are presented with the aim of understanding the major mechanisms of soil behaviour close to buried canisters of hot radioactive waste. A range of soil properties has been included in the study, and the effects of soil disturbance during canister emplacement have also been considered.     

爆炸离心模型试验研究进展与展望

由于能量比尺和原型应力模拟的优势,采用离心机进行爆炸试验具有无可比拟的优越性。在简要介绍土工离心机的发展历程的基础上,对爆炸离心模型试验较关注的问题--模型箱、爆炸源、离心模型比尺、数据采集、科氏加速度等方面的研究进行了归纳,对已有的研究领域进行总结并对以后的发展提出了自己的看法--模型箱设计需考虑防风措施、能量比尺仍需采取更精确方法验证、需制作稳定性好及质量有保证的微型炸药源等     

Implementation of a hydromechanical elastoplastic constitutive model for fully coupled dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils and its validation using centrifuge test results

Prediction of unsaturated soil behavior during earthquake loading has received increasing attention in geotechnical engineering research and practice in recent years. Development of a fully coupled analysis procedure incorporating a coupled hydromechanical elastoplastic constitutive model for dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils has, however, been limited. This paper presents the implementation of a coupled hydromechanical elastoplastic constitutive model into a fully coupled dynamic analysis procedure and its validation using a centrifuge test. First, the fully coupled finite element equations governing the dynamic behavior of unsaturated soils with the solid skeleton displacement, pore water pressure, and pore air pressure as nodal unknowns are briefly presented. The closest point projection method is then utilized to implement the coupled hydromechanical elastoplastic constitutive model into the finite element equations. The constitutive model includes hysteresis in soil–water characteristic curves, cyclic elastoplasticity of the solid skeleton, and the coupling mechanisms between the SWCCs and the solid skeleton. Finally, the analysis procedure is validated using the results from a dynamic centrifuge test on an embankment constructed of compacted unsaturated silt subjected to base shaking. Reasonable comparisons between the predicted and measured accelerations, settlements, and deformed shapes are obtained.

     

大变形黏土防渗层中的污染物迁移和转化规律研究

国内湖泊疏浚污染底泥堆场一般以较厚的黏土层作为主要防渗层,由于在上覆底泥作用下黏土层会发生较大的固结变形,因此,在研究黏土防渗层中的污染物运移和转化规律时,应该考虑土体变形的影响。基于Gibson一维大变形固结理论和饱和多孔介质中的污染物对流扩散方程,建立了二者耦合的可变形多孔介质中污染物的运移和转化模型,其中首次考虑了土体自重和生物降解作用的影响。利用所建立模型的数值解,研究了在可变形黏土防渗层中的污染物运移和转化规律,同时分析了模型中不同项和主要参数的作用和影响。研究结果表明,土体大变形对黏土防渗层中污染物的运移有着较复杂的影响,一方面土体变形会加速污染物的运移;另一方面土体固结带来的渗透性减小会增加污染物的穿透时间,二者的不同作用取决于众多的影响因素,如土层厚度和吸附作用等。研究结果对于评估天然黏土防渗层对污染物的阻隔作用有重要的指导意义。     

Consolidation around a point heat source

When a heat source such as a canister of radioactive waste is buried in a saturated soil the temperature changes that occur will cause the pore water to expand a greater amount than the voids of the soil. The temperature change will thus usually be accompanied by an increase in pore pressure. If the soil is sufficiently permeable these pore pressures will dissipate. This paper develops an analytic solution for the fundamental problem of a point heat source buried deep in a saturated soil.     

地埋点热源作用下层状半空间的热-力耦合响应

采用解析层元法对存在地下点热源的岩土工程问题进行解答。首先从热弹性力学三维问题的基本控制方程出发,利用拉普拉斯-傅里叶积分变换推导出其在变换域内单层介质及下卧半空间的解析层元;然后结合有限单元法原理组装得到总刚度矩阵,结合边界条件,得到其在变换域内的解答,最后应用拉普拉斯-傅里叶积分逆变换技术,得到物理域内的解。编制了相应的计算程序,算例分析表明：该结果与已有文献吻合较好,该方法求解层状半空间的热-力耦合响应问题具有较好的适用性和较高的精度;层状岩土介质体系中,热扩散系数对温度及地表隆起的变化过程影响显著,但对其初始值和最终稳定值影响不明显;分层特性对岩土介质温度分布及地表位移变化过程均有显著影响。     

Parametric sensitivity analysis of coupled mechanical consolidation and contaminant transport through clay barriers

In this paper, an extensive parametric sensitivity analysis of coupled consolidation and solute transport in composite landfill liner systems has been undertaken. The analysis incorporates results of more than 3000 simulations for various combinations of barrier thickness, waste loading rate, initial void ratio, compression index, hydraulic conductivity and dispersion coefficient. However, it is noted that to limit the extent of the study a constant coefficient of consolidation is assumed in the analysis presented here, though this assumption is easily relaxed. Results of the parametric sensitivity analysis are succinctly presented using dimensionless plots, which allow the comparison of results for a large number of parameter values, and so the clear identification of the most important determinants on contaminant transport through the liner system. The dimensionless plots demonstrate a pessimum (for which the ‘breakthrough time’ is minimised). Numerical results reveal that in cases of extreme liner compressibility an order of magnitude reduction in contaminant transit time may arise due to coupling between solute transport and consolidation, while for barriers of low compressibility and porosity (such as well-engineered composite compacted clay landfill liners), it is found that the contaminant transit time may still be reduced by more than 30%. The numerical results suggest that the use of coupled consolidation–contaminant transport models are sometimes required for informed and conservative landfill liner design.     

Numerical study of soil heterogeneity effects on contaminant transport in unsaturated soil (model development and validation)

The movement of chemicals through soil to groundwater is a major cause of degradation of water resources. In many cases, serious human and stock health implications are associated with this form of pollution. The study of the effects of different factors involved in transport phenomena can provide valuable information to find the best remediation approaches. Numerical models are increasingly being used for predicting or analyzing solute transport processes in soils and groundwater. This article presents the development of a stochastic finite element model for the simulation of contaminant transport through soils with the main focus being on the incorporation of the effects of soil heterogeneity in the model. The governing equations of contaminant transport are presented. The mathematical framework and the numerical implementation of the model are described. The comparison of the results obtained from the developed stochastic model with those obtained from a deterministic method and some experimental results shows that the stochastic model is capable of predicting the transport of solutes in unsaturated soil with higher accuracy than deterministic one. The importance of the consideration of the effects of soil heterogeneity on contaminant fate is highlighted through a sensitivity analysis regarding the variance of saturated hydraulic conductivity as an index of soil heterogeneity. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical investigation of the effects of consolidation on contaminant transport through clay barriers

Consolidation of clayey contaminant barriers such as landfill liners has been postulated as a cause of early breakthrough of contaminants. In this paper we theoretically investigate this proposition. For this purpose a sophisticated one‐dimensional, large‐deformation model of coupled mechanical consolidation and solute transport is employed. This new model is a generalization of existing coupled consolidation and solute transport models described in the literature. It takes into account both non‐linearities in geometry as well as constitutive relations. The latter relate the compressibility, hydraulic conductivity and coefficient of effective diffusivity to the deformation of the soil. The model is applied to a case study of a clay liner and geomembrane system. Results obtained from numerical solution of the model equations are compared with those from various simplified models, including a ‘diffusion only’ (i.e. a rigid soil) model traditionally used in contaminant barrier design. For barriers incorporating low compressibility soils (as for many well compacted clays), there is little difference between contaminant transit (i.e. breakthrough) times predicted by the two models. However, for contaminant barriers incorporating more compressible soils, consolidation is shown to significantly accelerate transport. These results indicate the potential importance of accounting for the effects of soil consolidation and highlight the limitations of existing models when modelling solute transport through composite barriers utilizing soft soils. Based on these limited results, we suggest a possible way of taking into account soil consolidation using simplified models. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

离心机自由场地震响应的完全耦合模拟

水平场地地震响应分析是岩土地震工程实践中最重要的问题之一。当场地土为饱和砂时,由于需要考虑材料的非线性和土-水之间的相互作用,问题非常复杂。利用有限元程序SUMDES和适用于颗粒材料的统一本构模型,对离心机自由场振动试验进行了完全耦合模拟。分析结果表明,完全耦合分析能够较好地再现试验中观察到的现象,包括孔隙水压力的产生和消散以及土体的变形,但前提是对模型参数进行准确的标定,以及对相关系数尤其是动力渗透系数进行准确的确定。     

土壤中可挥发性污染物清除的离心试验研究

土工离心模拟试验技术是研究环境岩土工程问题的有效手段。本文研究了非水相流体污染物在非饱和土中的迁移以及随后的抽气清除过程。 当离心机运行到要求的加速度时,汽油污染物从地下油罐中释放并在非饱和土中迁移一年,之后采用土壤通气法对污染土壤进行修复。对土壤取样分析,得到污染物在土体中的迁移规律和分布特征。试验结果表明,土壤通气法可以清除非饱和土体中的挥发性有机污染物,是一种有效的原位土壤修复技术。     

Contaminant leakage from deeply buried cylindrical repositories

The presence of any leak in a waste repository is going to cause some concern since it may lead to the contamination of the surrounding soil and groundwater. This is an important problem which occurs and recurs, sometimes despite the precautions taken to minimize the possibility of development of any leak. The effects of contaminant leakage in general are not well understood. Thus it is the aim in this paper to develop some semi-analytical solutions of leakage problems occurring in deeply buried cylindrical repositories. In the solution approach, a series of integral transforms is used to simplify the governing equations and solutions are found in the transform space before numerical inversions are applied to obtain the contaminant concentrations in real space and time. To illustrate the application of the technique, results of some leakage cases are presented.     

One‐dimensional contaminant transport through a deforming porous medium: theory and a solution for a quasi‐steady‐state problem

Contaminant migration through soil is usually modelled mathematically using the dispersion–advection equation. This type of model finds application when planning the remediation of contaminated land, predicting the movement of polluted groundwater and designing engineered landfills. Usually the analysis assumes that the porous media through which the contaminant migrates is stationary. However, the construction of landfills on clay soils means that the soil beneath the landfill will undergo time‐dependent deformation as the soil consolidates. To date, there are no published data on the effect a deforming porous media may have on contaminant transport beneath a landfill; indeed, there appears to be no theory of contaminant migration through a deforming soil. In this paper, a one‐dimensional theory of contaminant migration through a saturated deforming porous media is developed based on a small and large strain analysis of a consolidating soil and conservation of contaminant mass. By selection of suitable parameters, the new transport equation reduces to the familiar one‐dimensional dispersion–advection equation for a saturated soil with linear, reversible, equilibrium controlled sorption of the contaminant onto the soil skeleton. Analytic solutions to a quasi‐steady‐state contaminant transport problem for a deforming media are presented, and a preliminary assessment made of the potential importance of soil deformation on the results of a contaminant migration analysis. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

考虑土体固结变形的污染物运移模型

土体的固结压缩变形对污染物的运移具有重要的影响,而目前国内关于污染物在变形多孔介质中运移规律的研究尚处于空白,在国外也是近几年才有人开始这方面的研究工作。在Biot固结理论和污染物运移理论相结合的基础上,提出了污染物在黏土防渗层中迁移转化的一维数学模型,该模型的最大特点是考虑了土体受力变形对污染物运移的影响,在合理简化的基础上给出了模型的解析解,并将计算结果与太湖疏浚污染底泥堆场的实测结果进行了比较分析,模拟计算的结果在一定程度上能够反映实际土层中污染物的运移情况。     

CCL吸附特性及孔隙率降低对污染物运移的影响

假定孔隙均匀地分布于土体的物质空间内和土骨架对污染物的吸附特性服从平衡线性,对基本体积质量关系进行分析,提出了由于土体对污染物的吸附而引起的孔隙率降低的估算公式。在考虑土体孔隙率变化的条件下,建立了污染物一维运移的控制方程,并考虑垃圾生物降解效应、压实黏土衬里（CCL）防渗层、下覆有限厚度含水层等实际情况,确定了初始条件和边界条件。对所建立的初边值问题进行了数值求解,且对某假想填埋场情况进行了变动参数与对比计算,结果表明,由于土颗粒对污染物的吸附所引起的孔隙率降低,显著地降低了污染物对压实黏土衬里的穿透能力。与常孔隙率情况相比,CCL中污染物的峰值浓度降低近10 %,含水层中污染物浓度降低更显著。当考虑土体孔隙率变化时,弥散对污染物运移具有控制作用,分布系数对污染物的运移具有重要影响。     

严寒地区地源热泵地埋管周围土壤冻结影响因素的实验研究

为了研究影响地埋管周围土壤冻结的因素,文章建立了模拟严寒地区热失衡状态下地源热泵冬季运行情况的实验装置。实验研究了进口流体温度、土壤体积含水率和土壤初始温度对地埋管周围土壤冻结的影响。结果表明:进口流体温度变化改善了埋管周围的温度场,有利于埋管换热器换热;随着土壤初始温度升高,减小了土壤物性参数的变化,增加了地埋管换热器的换热量;土壤体积含水率的增加,强化了周围土壤与地埋管换热器的换热作用,有利于提高地埋管的出口流体温度和取热值。     

Monitoring the Performance of Unsaturated Soil Slopes

Field monitoring is necessary for the geotechnical engineer to verify design assumptions. More importantly, the field data may also be assembled into a comprehensive case record that is available for use when checking validity of any analytical and numerical models. The ongoing process of back-analysis in unsaturated soil engineering can help to refine and improve our understanding, providing guidance for future designs, where the effects of soil suction and hydraulic hysteresis are still being explored. A range of recent field studies of the mechanisms of rainfall infiltration into slopes is presented. In addition, some physical simulations of unsaturated soil slopes subjected to rainfall, rising ground water table and changes of moisture in centrifuge model tests are reported.     

基于混合物理论的水力-化学-力学污染物输运模型研究

由于废弃物的堆积以及填埋场上覆盖层的重量,衬垫因此承受一定的压力,发生力学固结;由于黏土本身的结构特性,当污染物通过黏土垫层时可能会发生化学固结,而固结作用可直接对污染物的对流输运产生影响,也会引起土层体积和结构的变化,从而改变其固有的输运性质。从混合物理论出发,建立了水力-化学-力学作用下的溶质输运理论框架,统一地描述了水力-化学-力学作用下变形、水的吸附或解吸附、对流和扩散现象。将输运系数考虑为有效孔隙率的函数,由此反映固结对输运参数的影响。对所建立的数学模型进行无量纲化处理,并使用有限元软件COMSOL Multiphysics进行求解,最后进行了参数分析。研究结果表明,垫层土体中吸附水和自由水之间的化学势差异越大,层间吸附水的解吸附量越大;当土体的软硬性质不同时,当层间吸附水解吸附后,土体固结程度不同,从而对污染物输运过程的影响不同。而当垫层上覆荷载增大时,土体宏观孔隙的扩张的限制作用增强,从而对土体产生一种修复作用,抑制污染物在土体中的输运。     

Finite element modelling of transport of organic chemicals through soils

Aquifer contamination by organic chemicals in subsurface flow through soils due to leaking underground storage tanks filled with organic fluids is an important groundwater pollution problem. The problem involves transport of a chemical pollutant through soils via flow of three immiscible fluid phases: namely air, water and an organic fluid. In this paper, assuming the air phase is under constant atmospheric pressure, the flow field is described by two coupled equations for the water and the organic fluid flow taking interphase mass transfer into account. The transport equations for the contaminant in all the three phases are derived and assuming partition equilibrium coefficients, a single convective – dispersive mass transport equation is obtained. A finite element formulation corresponding to the coupled differential equations governing flow and mass transport in the three fluid phase porous medium system with constant air phase pressure is presented. Relevant constitutive relationships for fluid conductivities and saturations as function of fluid pressures lead to non-linear material coefficients in the formulation. A general time-integration scheme and iteration by a modified Picard method to handle the non-linear properties are used to solve the resulting finite element equations. Laboratory tests were conducted on a soil column initially saturated with water and displaced by p-cymene (a benzene-derivative hydrocarbon) under constant pressure. The same experimental procedure is simulated by the finite element programme to observe the numerical model behaviour and compare the results with those obtained in the tests. The numerical data agreed well with the observed outflow data, and thus validating the formulation. A hypothetical field case involving leakage of organic fluid in a buried underground storage tank and the subsequent transport of an organic compound (benzene) is analysed and the nature of the plume spread is discussed.