Improved Boussinesq Equation–Based Model for Transient Flow in a Drainage Layer of Highway: Capillary Correction
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 12
Abstract
Currently, time to drain and depth of flow are the two basic concepts for designing the drainage layer of highway, both of which are based on the saturated flow and cannot reasonably evaluate the drainage efficiency of drainage layer. A recent study demonstrated that capillary effects could become significant with unsaturated flow playing an important role in conducting water out of the drainage layer in some cases. In view of the disadvantages of the two methods, it is reasonable to combine them to guide the design of a drainage layer. Here, a model was established based on the one-dimensional (1D) transient Boussinesq equation with a capillary correction. The general solution to the governing equation was obtained using the method of separation variables. Furthermore, the presented model was validated against numerical simulations predicted by a finite-difference method (the MATLAB program) and the finite-element method (SUTRA program). A comparison was conducted to demonstrate the difference between the saturated drainage and unsaturated drainage processes. The results showed that the time to drain the same water volume based on the saturated model is much less than that based on the unsaturated model. The present model with capillary correction performs better than the saturated model in predicting time to drain in the drainage layer.
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Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of P.R. China (Grant No. 2012QNZT048), National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 51248006 and 51308554), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2012M521563) to the first writer. The research is also assisted by the Special Financial Grant from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2013T60865), the Hainan Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 511114), Traffic Technology Fund of Guizhou Province of P.R. China (Grant No. 2013-121-013).
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 12 • December 2013
Pages: 1018 - 1027
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 17, 2012
Accepted: May 27, 2013
Published online: May 29, 2013
Discussion open until: Oct 29, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
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