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Three‐dimensional finite element modelling for consolidation due to groundwater withdrawal in a desaturating anisotropic aquifer system
Author(s) -
Kim JunMo,
Parizek Richard R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.419
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1096-9853
pISSN - 0363-9061
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9853(199905)23:6<549::aid-nag983>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - aquifer , geotechnical engineering , consolidation (business) , poromechanics , geology , groundwater , anisotropy , groundwater flow , finite element method , isotropy , porous medium , hydraulic conductivity , hydraulic head , hydrogeology , pore water pressure , groundwater model , soil science , porosity , soil water , engineering , structural engineering , physics , accounting , quantum mechanics , business
A poroelastic numerical model is presented to evaluate three‐dimensional consolidation due to groundwater withdrawal from desaturating anisotropic porous media. This numerical model is developed based on the fully coupled governing equations for groundwater flow in deforming variably saturated porous media and the Galerkin finite element method. Two different cases of unsaturated aquifers are simulated for the purpose of comparison: a cross‐anisotropic soil aquifer, and a corresponding isotropic soil aquifer composed of a geometrically averaged equivalent material. The numerical simulation results show that the anisotropy has a significant effect on the shapes of three‐dimensional hydraulic head distribution and displacement vector fields. Such an effect of anisotropy is caused by the uneven partitioning of the hydraulic pumping stress between the vertical and horizontal directions in both groundwater flow field and solid skeleton deformation field. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.