Simulating Groundwater Inflow in the Underground Tunnel with a Coupled Fracture-Matrix Model
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 11
Abstract
Groundwater inflow during tunnel excavation is a common problem in practice. How to accurately predict its occurrence during the construction is still a challenging problem for tunnel designers. A numerical method, based on the coupled model involved in artery fractures described by a discrete fractured network model and ramification fractures and rock matrix described by the equivalent continuum medium model, is developed to calculate the groundwater inflow of underground tunnel. The model is calibrated with the observed groundwater levels in the study domain. The results in the model calibration show that calculated and measured groundwater inflows agree well. Sensitivity analysis indicates that groundwater inflow increases with the increase of precipitation rate, hydraulic conductivity of rock matrix and fracture aperture. The effect of fracture aperture on groundwater inflow is predominant, owing to the occurring of many artery fractures around the tunnel, which leads to much groundwater flowing to the tunnel through these fractures.
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Acknowledgments
This study has been supported by Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University under Grant (IRT0717), Program for Non-profit Industry Financial Program of MWR (200901064, 201001020), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2009B00514), Natural Science Foundation of China (51079043), and project of National Key Development Program for Fundamental Research (2010CB951101).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 11 • November 2013
Pages: 1557 - 1561
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2010
Accepted: Jun 7, 2011
Published online: Jun 10, 2011
Discussion open until: Nov 10, 2011
Published in print: Nov 1, 2013
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