Estimation of groundwater inflow into underground opening is of critical importance for the design and construction of underground structures. Groundwater inflow into a pilot underground storage facility in China was estimated using analytical equations, numerical modeling and field measurement. The applicability of analytical and numerical methods was examined by comparing the estimated and measured results. Field geological investigation indicated that in local scale the high groundwater inflows are associated with the appearance of open joints, fractured zone or dykes induced by shear and/or tensile tectonic stresses. It was found that 8 groundwater inflow spots with high inflow rates account for about 82% of the total rate for the 9 caverns. On the prediction of the magnitude of groundwater inflow rate, it was found that could both (Finite Element Method) FEM and (Discrete Element Method) DEM perform better than analytical equations, due to the fact that in analytical equations simplified assumptions were adopted. However, on the prediction of the spatial distribution estimation of groundwater inflow, both analytical and numerical methods failed to predict at the present state. Nevertheless, numerical simulations would prevail over analytical methods to predict the distribution if more details in the simulations were taken into consideration.
Key Words
groundwater inflow; rock caverns; numerical modeling, analytical solution; field measurement; heterogeneity
Address
(1) Zhechao Wang, Liping Qiao — Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110004, China
(2) Zhechao Wang, Liyuan Yu — State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangshu, 221008, China
(3) Sangki Kwon — Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Inha University, Chung-Hak Dong, Yeun-Su Ku, Incheon, 402751, Korea
(4) Liping Bi — Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250061, China.
PDF Viewer
Preview is limited to the first 3 pages. Sign in to access the full PDF.
