On numerical modeling of capillary barriers
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (US)
Because of their ability to protect underground regions from wetting by downward infiltration, capillary barriers have been objects of considerable interest. A capillary barrier consists of a layer of fine soil overlying a layer of coarse soil. In unsaturated conditions, infiltrating water may be held in the fine medium by capillary force and resist moving into the coarse layer. If the contact is tilted, infiltrating water in the fine layer will build up and flow downdip along the contact, a process known as capillary diversion. Capillary barriers occur naturally or can be created artifically. Recently progress has been made in the theoretical, laboratory, and field study of capillary barriers. Because of the potential significance of capillary barriers on important questions of hazardous waste isolation, and in light of intriguing results of laboratory and field experiments of capillary barriers as well as the simple theoretical results, numerical experiments are presented of an idealized field-scale capillary barrier system with the objective of further understanding the behavior of capillary barriers. An additional objective is the evaluation of the accuracy with which numerical methods can be expected to model the full complement of complicated flow processes associated with the potential high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. To this end, different mobility weighting schemes and grid orientation effects in the flow in the model capillary barrier system are investigated.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 139258
- Journal Information:
- Water Resources Research, Journal Name: Water Resources Research Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 29; ISSN 0043-1397; ISSN WRERAQ
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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