Sorptivity of rocks and soils of the van Genuchten-Mualem type
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
One hydrological process that will have great relevance to the performance of the proposed underground radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is that of the absorption of water from a water-filled fracture into the adjacent unsaturated rock formation. The rate at which water is imbibed by a rock depends on the hydrological properties of the rock and on the initial saturation (or initial capillary suction) of the formation. The hydrological properties that affect imbibition are the relative permeability function and the capillary pressure function. These functions are often collectively referred to as the `characteristic functions` of the porous medium. For one-dimensional absorption, it can be shown that, regardless of the details of the characteristic functions, the total amount of water imbibed by the formation, per unit surface area, will be proportional to the square root of the elapsed time. Hence the ability of a rock or soil to imbibe water can be quantified by a parameter known as the sorptivity S, which is defined such that the cumulative volumetric liquid influx per unit area is given by Q = S{radical}t. The paper discusses the simplification of these characteristic functions of porous medium.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 138337
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-29700; ON: DE92000647; TRN: JT9212%%569
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jun 1991; Related Information: Is Part Of Earth Sciences Division annual report 1990; PB: 197 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
RESERVOIR ROCK
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
CAPILLARY FLOW
DIFFUSION
EQUATIONS
HYDROLOGY
PERMEABILITY
POROUS MATERIALS
PROGRESS REPORT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
SORPTION
TUFF
WATER
WATER SATURATION
Yucca Mountain Project