• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.325-330
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• 2016

The second phase of low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW) disposal facility is under planned on the sedimentary rock in unsaturated zone. In this study, we created two meshes which were a matrix continuum mesh and a fracture continuum mesh to carry out 2 dimensional numerical modeling for groundwater flow in the unsaturated zone containing fractures focused on the second phase of LILW disposal facility. Two continuum meshes were developed using MINC in meshmaker module of TOUGH2 code. A fracture continuum mesh was included the k-field distribution of the permeability derived from the Discrete Fractured Network (DFN) modeling. To apply the unsaturated zone for the modeling, the gridding steps to generate mesh were developed. Each step to generate a mesh consisted of definition of materials, setting the initial conditions and creating grids using MINC. The methodology development of meshes in this study will be applied for more precise modeling of groundwater flow and mass transport.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.86-88
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• 2002

The mathematical model was proposed to simulate ozone transport and remediation in unsaturated soils contaminated with phenanthrene. Soil column experiments were also carried out to calibrate the mathematical model. The experimental results successfully matched with the modeling results in various soil conditions. The model proposed nondimensional fraction factor to reveal reactivity between phenanthrene and gas phase ozone and liquid phase ozone. From sensitivity analysis, the fraction factor and stoichiometric coefficient decreased as water content increased. Simulation results showed increased SOM content retarded the ozone transport and the phenanthrene removal due to increased ozone consumption.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 2016

We present the results of two-dimensional numerical simulations predicting the flow of groundwater in a fractured unsaturated zone. We applied the k-field distribution of permeability derived from discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling as the hydraulic properties of a model domain. To model an unsaturated zone, we set the depth from the ground surface to the underground aquifer. The rate of water infiltration into the unsaturated zone was divided into two parts, an artificial structure surface and unsaturated soil zone. The movement of groundwater through the unsaturated zone was simulated with particular emphasis on contaminant transport. It was clearly observed that the contaminants dissolved in groundwater transported vertically from the ground surface to the saturated zone.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.141-154
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• 2023

This study investigated the effect of water retention characteristics between aged and fresh Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) on the stability of the landfill. A series of transient numerical modeling for the slope of an MSW landfill was performed considering the variation of water retention characteristics due to leachate circulation. Four different scenarios were considered in this analysis depending on how to obtain hydraulic conductivity and the aging degree of materials. Unsaturated hydraulic properties of the MSW used for the modeling were evaluated through modified hanging column tests. Different water retention properties and various landfill conditions, such as subgrade stiffness, leachate injection frequency, and gas and leachate collection system, were considered to investigate the pore water distribution and slope stability. The stability analyses related to the factor of safety showed that unsaturated properties under those varied conditions significantly impacted the slope stability, where the factor of safety decreased, ranging between 9.4 and 22%. The aged materials resulted in a higher factor of safety than fresh materials; however, after 1000 days, the factor of safety decreased by around 10.6% due to pore pressure buildup. The analysis results indicated that using fresh materials yielded higher factor of safety values. The landfill subgrade was found to have a significant impact on the factor of safety, which resulted in an average of 34% lower factor of safety in soft subgrades. The results also revealed that a failed leachate collection system (e.g., clogging) could result in landfill failure (factor of safety < 1) after around 298 days, while the leachate recirculation frequency has no critical impact on stability. In addition, the accumulation of gas pressure within the waste body resulted in factor of safety reductions as high as 24%. It is essential to consider factors related to the unsaturated hydraulic properties in designing a landfill to prevent landfill instability.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.83-93
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• 2006

In unsaturated porous media, the air-water interface (AWI) plays an important role in removing of biocolloids such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoan (oo)cysts. In this study, four models related to calculation of specific AWI area are analyzed to determine the appropriate model, and the selected models are verified using the previously reported experimental data. The results indicate that the modified model from Niemet et al. (2002) is the most appropriate tool for calculating the specific AWI area using the van Genuchten (1980) parameters obtained from the water retention curve. Hence, it is expected that this model could be used to quantitatively determine the attachment of biocolloids to AWI in the transport modeling of biocolloids in unsaturated porous media.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.99-101
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• 2003

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity models have been widely used for the numerical modeling of water flow and contaminant transport in soils. In this study, a simple hydraulic conductivity model is developed by using information of particle-size distribution from the lognormal distribution model and its results are compared with those from the Kosugi-Mualem (KM) model. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified for observed data chosen from the international UNSODA database. Results showed that the proposed model produces adequate predictions of hydraulic conductivities. Performance of this model is generally better than the KM function.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.112-115
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• 1997

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.158-159
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• 2006

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2007

A conventional single compartment model cannot simulate reasonably the migration phenomenon of contaminants through unsaturated zone, due to the intrinsic unrealistic assumption of the compartment model that contaminants entering a compartment are immediately and uniformly mixed. Although, a multi-compartments model, in which even physically identical layer is divided into multiple compartments, may be used for explaining the retardation of contaminant mass flux along with increasing number of compartments, its numerical modeling is usually time-consuming and appropriate analytical solutions have not been reported yet. In order to improve the conventional compartment models on contaminant migration through unsaturated zone, a series of analytical solutions for multi-compartments model were derived and a generalized constraint under which the results from multi-compartments model can be simply approximated by single compartment model was proposed. The simplified approximation method was verified by a simple numerical analysis on the constraint under hypothetical conditions. It was also proved that the influent contaminant transfer rate from the bulk unsaturated zone can be generally represented into a time-dependent nominal transfer rate rather than a constant. In addition, the nominal transfer rate turned out to be very sensitive to the contaminant transfer rate between compartments in unsaturated zone, but to be almost insensitive to the transfer rate from contaminated zone. It is expected that the simplified approximation method developed in this study can be used for rapid and reasonable estimation of the migration phenomenon of contaminant through unsaturated zone, instead of time-consuming multi-compartments modeling.