Open AccessConstitutive Relations for Unsaturated Flow in a Fracture Network
Author(s) -
H H Liu,
G S Bodvarsson
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/787056
Subject(s) - constitutive equation , porous medium , geotechnical engineering , relation (database) , fracture (geology) , geology , flow (mathematics) , mathematics , mechanics , porosity , computer science , engineering , structural engineering , physics , finite element method , geometry , data mining
A commonly used approach for modeling water flow in unsaturated fractured rocks is the continuum approach, in which the constitutive relation models originally developed for porous media have often been borrowed to represent constitutive relations for the fracture continuum. While these models have been successfully used for soils and other porous media, their usefulness and limitations have not been investigated for the fracture continuum. The objective of this study is to present an evaluation of the commonly used van Genuchten and Brooks-Corey models and to develop improved constitutive relation models based on the evaluation results