Determination of Volume Porosity and Permeability of Drainage Layer in Rainwater Drainage System Using 3-D Numerical Method

The increase in impermeable pavement from recent urbanization has resulted in an increase in surface runoff. The surface runoff has also increased the burden of the existing drainage system. This drainage system has structural limitations in that the catchment area is reduced by the waste particles transported with the surface runoff. In addition, the efficiency of the drainage system is decreased. To overcome these limitations, a new type of drainage system with a drainage layer was developed and applied. In this study, various volume porosity and permeability of the lower drainage layer were simulated using ANSYS CFX, which is a three dimensional computational fluid dynamics program. The results showed that the outlet velocity of the 35% volume porosity was faster than that of the 20% and 50% cases, and there was no relationship between the volume porosity and drainage performance. The permeability of the drainage layer can be determined from the particle size of the material, and a simulation of five conditions showed that 2 mm sand grains are most suitable for workability and usability. This study suggests appropriate values of the volume porosity and particle size of the drainage layer. This consideration can be advantageous for reducing and preventing flood damage.