• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.462-473
• /
• 2018

The uranium ore residues from the legacies of past uranium mining and milling activities that resulted from the less stringent environmental standards along with the uranium residues from the existing nuclear power plants continue to be a cause of concern as the final uranium residues are not made safe from radiological and general safety point of view. The deposition of uranium in ponds increases the risk of groundwater getting contaminated as these residues essentially leach through the upper unsaturated geological formation. In this context, a numerical model has been developed in order to forecast the $^{238}U$ and its progenies concentration in an unsaturated soil. The developed numerical model is implemented in a hypothetical uranium tailing pond consisting of sandy soil and silty soil types. The numerical results show that the $^{238}U$ and its progenies are migrating up to the depth of 90 m and 800 m after 10 y in silty and sandy soil, respectively. Essentially, silt may reduce the risk of contamination in the groundwater for longer time span and at the deeper depths. In general, a coupled effect of sorption and hydro-geological parameters (soil type, moisture context and hydraulic conductivity) decides the resultant uranium transport in subsurface environment.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2015

This is conducted to observe underground temperature and to analyze its change affected by climate condition and soil infiltration in the mountainous area, Yesan region, Chungcheong-namdo province. Additionally, underground temperature change is also simulated using air temperature and soil thermal properties with a numerical model. Soil temperature monitoring data acquired from each depth, 20 cm, 50 cm, and 100 cm, indicates that the data within 50 cm in depth shows peak-shaped big fluctuation directly affected by air temperature and it at 100 cm has open-shaped small fluctuation. Underground temperature variation, a difference between high and low values, during monitoring period is weakly proportional to hydraulic conductivity of the sediment and it is assumed that water plays a part in delivering air temperature in soil. The underground temperature estimated by a numerical model is very similar to the observed data with an average value of 0.99 cross-correlation coefficient. From the result of this study, the aquifer unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil and the groundwater recharge is likely to be able to estimate with underground temperature profile calculated using a numerical model.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.71-78
• /
• 2012

Rainfall infiltration test under one dimensional condition is conducted to evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on seepage velocity and infiltration characteristics for initial unsaturated sediment. Experimental results are compared with those numerical simulations with respect to variations of pore water pressure, degree of saturation and discharge velocity with time, and both results give good agreement. High rainfall intensity tends to increase seepage velocity almost linearly. But it shows rapid increase as rainfall intensity approaches saturated hydraulic conductivity of the sediment. In addition, the upper part of wetting front depth is partially saturated, not fully. Therefore, actual wetting front depth is considered to advance faster than theoretical prediction, which leads to slope instability of unsaturated slope due to surface rainfall.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.32 no.3C
• /
• pp.113-120
• /
• 2012

An actual slope failure was analyzed in residual soils at Jinju. Due to rainfall infiltration, the safety factor decreases in the unsaturated layers, since the effective stress and shear strength decrease. In this study, the effective stress is based on suction stress using soil water retention curve. Unsaturated properties were evaluated on soil water retention curve, hydraulic conductivity and shear strength with samples from the site. After infiltration analysis of unsaturated flow under the actual rainfall, the distribution of pore water pressure could be calculated in the slope layers. In the stress field of finite elements, an elastic analysis calculated total stress distribution in the layers and also shear stresses on the slip surface using elastic model. On the slip surface, suction stress and effective stress evaluated the shear strength. As a result, the factor of safety was calculated due to rainfall, which could simulate the actual slope failure. In particular, it was found that the suction stress increases and both the effective stress and the shear strength decrease simultaneously on the slip surface.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.241-249
• /
• 2006

A mathematical model is described for the prediction of convective upward transport of an organic solvent driven by evaporation at the surface, which is known as the major transport mechanism in the in-situ photolysis of a soil contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin(TCDD). A finite-element model was proposed to incorporate the effects of multiphase flow on the distribution of each fluid, gravity as a driving force, and the use of hysteretic models for more accurate description of k-S-p relations. Extensive numerical calculations were performed to study fluid flow through three types of soils under different water table conditions. Predictions of relative permeability-saturation-pressure (k-S-p) relations and fluids distribution for an illustrative soil indicate that hysteresis effects may be quite substantial. This result emphasizes the need to use hysteretic models in performing flow simulations including reversals of flow paths. Results of additional calculations accounting for hysteresis on the one-dimensional unsaturated soil columns show that gravity affects significantly on the flow of each fluid during gravity drainage, solvent injection, and evaporation, especially for highly permeable soils. The rate and duration of solvent injection also have a profound influence on the fluid saturation profile and the amount of evaporated solvent. Key factors influencing water drainage and solvent evaporation in soils also include hydraulic conductivity and water table configuration.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.295-302
• /
• 2021

Cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective groundwater detection tool in geophysical investigations. In this paper, an artificial water injection test was conducted on a small clay sample, where the high-resolution cross-borehole ERT was used to investigate the moisture migration law over time. The moisture migration path can be two-dimensionally imaged based on the relationship between resistivity and saturation. The hydraulic conductivity was estimated, and the magnitude ranged from 10^-11 m/s to 10^-9 m/s according to the comparison between the simulation flow and the saturation distribution inferred from ERT. The results indicate that cross-borehole ERT could help determine the resistivity distribution of small size clay samples. Finally, the cross-borehole ERT technique has been applied to investigate the self-sealing characteristics of clay.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.181-192
• /
• 2003

We developed a mathematical simulation model to portray the vertical distribution of soil water from the measured weather data and the known soil hydraulic properties, and then compared simulation results with the periodically measured soil water profiles obtained on Jungdong sandy loam to verify the model, In this model, we solved potential-based Richards' equation by the implicit finite difference method superimposed on the predictor-corrector scheme. We presumed that: soil hydraulic properties are homogeneous; soil water flows isothermally; hysteresis is not considered; no vapor flows; no heat transfers into the soil profiles; and water added to soil surface is distributed along the soil profile following partial displacement principle. The input data were broadly classified into two groups: (1) daily weather data such as rainfall, maximum and minimum air temperatures, relative humidity and solar radiation and (2) soil hydraulic data to approximate unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and water retention. Each hydraulic polynomial function approximated using the Chebyshev polynomial and least square difference technique in tandem showed a fairly good fit of the given set of data. Vertical distribution of soil water as approximations to the Richards' equation subject to changing surface and phreatic boundaries was solved numerically during 53 days with a comparatively large time increment, and this pattern agreed well with field neutron scattering data, except for the surface 0.1 m slab.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.74-77
• /
• 2000

Infiltration and water flow in the upper soil layer of a deep water table aquifer are modeled for multistorm runoff events. The infiltration process is developed using the sharp wetting front model of Green and Ampt, and the following redistribution process is modeled using the gravity drained rectangular approximation. The Brooks-Corey model [Brooks and Corey, 1966] is adopted to relate the effective soil saturation, the tension head, and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity Firstly, the infiltration and redistribution model is developed for a single stom runoff event. Then a couple of events combined for multistorm runoff events. In the later case, infiltration rate of the second rainfall is strongly influenced by the length of the rainfall hiatus and soil moisture profile.

• Geotechnical Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.191-204
• /
• 1998

The feasibility of fly ash was evaluated as an alternative liner material to the conventional clay liner of landfills through modeling and laboratory experiments. In order to consider the effect of unsaturation on water flow through the liner, analyses were made to compare flow characteristics in saturated liner with that of unsaturated one. Contaminant migration characteristics in liners were investigated by batch experiment and modeling, in which phenol was employed as a model was solved by numerical techniques of finite difference method and predictor-corrector method to deal with high non-linearity. Sequential method was used to handle the system of differential equations. Results show that the alternative liner material is more capable of cutting off water flow in unsaturated condition and in preventing phenol from passing through it. It can be seen that, under the flow conditions considered in this study, the conventional saturation approach underestimates the amount of water passing through the liner and doers the cut-off capability against phenol significantly.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.25-32
• /
• 2011

The matric suction and volumetric water content of dredging soils obtained from Saemangeum area were measured by the automated Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) apparatus under both drying and wetting conditions. Based on the test result, SWCCs of the dredging soils were estimated by the van Genuchten(1980) model. The matric suction of drying process is larger than that of wetting process at a same effective degree of saturation. The suction stresses for various matirc suctions were estimated using Lu and Likos(2006) model and the Suction Stress Characteristic Curves (SSCC) were predicted using the independent parameter of SWCC. The suction stress of drying path was increased and decreased, while the suction stress of wetting path was continuously decreased with increasing the effective degree. Also, the suction stress of drying path is larger than that of wetting path at a same effective degree of saturation. The Hydraulic Conductivity Function(HCF) was also predicted by the van Genuchten(1980) model. The hydraulic conductivity was increased with increasing the volumetric water content. The hydraulic conductivity of drying path is larger than that of wetting path at a same matric suction. According to the results of SWCCs and SSCCs, the hysteresis phenomenon of suction stress or matric suction during both drying and wetting paths was occurred. The main reason of hysteresis phenomenon is a ink bottle effect of water among soil particles.