ASSESSMENT OF INFLOW POSSIBILITY INTO UNDERGROUND

EXCAVATIONS USING DFN AND PERCOLATION CONSEPTS

M. Javadi
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran
M. Sharifzadeh
Asst.Prof., Faculty of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran
ABSTRACT:
Control of water inflow into underground excavations during and after construction is a necessary
operation due to the destructive influences such as adverse environmental impacts, mechanical instability,
and impairing the project schedule. This paper discusses the applicability of DFN simulation for possibility
assessment of water inflow into underground excavation in heterogeneous fractured rock masses. This
process was performed using the statistics of field data of fracture geometry and FNETF computational code.
The main input data for analysis were captured from site investigation and measurements in Siah Bisheh
pumped storage project at the north of Iran. The powerhouse and transformer caverns were separated to
different parts and the flow out from the rock into each part was individually measured during and after
caverns construction. The possibility of ground water inflow into powerhouse and transformer caverns was
estimated using percolation behaviour of DFN realizations and compared with observed one. Simulation
results indicate that in order to come up with percolated caverns and inflow possibility, at least about 1-3% of
fractures in the whole domain should be hydraulically active. In addition, maximum 38.6% of the total existing
fractures in the domain contributed to flow. Comparison between simulation result and field observation
indicates that, the DFN model predicted more possibility of water inflow into caverns than observed one.
Since there is an appropriate correspondence between simulated and observed inflow possibilities in the
less heterogeneous geological condition, existing impermeable zones around caverns can be considered as
the one of the important reason of the overestimation of inflow possibility.
KEYWORDS: water inflow, possibility assessment, distinct fracture network, percolation.

1 INTRODUCTION
Ground water inflow causes several difficulties such
as unsafely, impairing the project schedule,
mechanical instability, equipment damaging and
altering the groundwater regime as well in the
construction phase of any underground excavations
as in the operation phase. To evaluate the related
problems, the possibility and the probable water
inflow into excavation must be somehow predicted
in advance. Successful predictions can be of help in
reducing the total construction cost and
environmental impacts.
In many geological structures, the matrix
permeability is negligible compared to permeability
of fractures and rock mass hydraulic behaviour is
controlled
by
fractures.
In
such
highly
heterogeneous fractured media, fluid flow takes
place along preferential pathways within the
fractures (Odling et al., 1999; Hitchmough et al.,
2007) as field experiments provide indirect evidence
of these preferential pathways (Wang et al., 1999,
Hsieh and Neuman, 1985; Neuman and Depner,

1988; Novakowski and Bickerton, 1997; Nativ et al.,

1999). Therefore, the classical continuous approach
to the representation of fractured rocks, which is to
model them as an equivalent porous medium, may
become a poor approximation (Ubertosi et al.,
2007), especially for near-field scale problems (Bear
et al., 1993). Continuum behaviour is more likely to
occur in densely fractured, well-connected fracture
networks with mixed fracture orientations than in
sparsely fractured, poorly connected, and/or
strongly anisotropic systems (Niemi et al., 2000).
The possibility of ground water inflow into
underground excavation in fractured rock is difficult
to predict because of the complexity and
heterogeneity of fracture network configurations.
The existence of a flow pathway or connection
between the boundaries of flow and underground
excavation is a critical feature controlling the inflow
possibility (Long and Billaux, 1987; Margolin et al.,
1998; Darcel et al., 2003). The connectivity between
fractures embedded in impermeable or low
permeability
geological
formations
in
the

M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh

surrounding underground excavation space is an

important measure for assessing the possibility of
ground water inflow and evaluation of the
connectivity is fundamental to the problem (Xu et
al., 2006). However, connectivity evaluation by
performing the field experiment is restricted by time,
resources, uncertainty of fractures geometrical
parameters, and investigating a collection of
interconnected fractures in an unknown volume and
of variable directions. In such situations, the discrete
fracture network (DFN) concept is an alternative to
the discontinue representations of fractured rock
mass and may appear much more adapted for
analysis of the heterogeneous behaviour (Cacas et
al., 1990). The DFN models possess wide
applications for problems of fractured rocks (Long et
al., 1982; Rouleau and Gale, 1987; Cacas et al.
1990; de Dreuzy et al. 2001; Baghbanan and Jing,
2008; Lee and Moon, 2004), due to the fact that it is,
so far, an irreplaceable tool for modeling fluid flow
and transport phenomena at the near-field scale
because the dominance of the fracture geometry at
small and intermediate scales can be approximated
explicitly and in detail (Min et al., 2004).
The aim of this paper is to perform DFN method
for possibility assessment of ground water inflow
into underground excavations for near-field scale
application. A new computational code so-called
FNETF has been developed for generating DFN
realizations. The main input data for analysis are
captured from site investigations and measurements
in Siah Bisheh pumped storage project at the north
of Iran. The inflow possibility assessment and
percolation behaviour along the powerhouse and
transformer caverns were studied using the FNETF
computational code and compared with water inflow
fields data.
2 SIAH BISHEH PUMPED STORAGE PROJECT
2.1 Site Description and Geology
The Siah Bisheh pumped storage project is located
at the Alborz serial Mountains, mainly folded and
formed during the Alpine orogenic phase, with a
NW-SE trend at the Western parts and NE-SW at
the Eastern parts. Alborz Mountains is limited to the
Central Iran to the South, and its Northern area is
marked by some large faults.
The Siah Bisheh powerhouse cavern (hereafter
named PHC) with 131.6 m length, 25 m width and
46.5 m height and transformer cavern (hereafter
named TC) with 161 m length, 16 m width and 28 m
height, are the main underground excavations in
this project. Both PHC and TC were constructed at
a depth of approximately 250 m below the ground
surface with the azimuth of N152E. These caverns
are located at the Permian formation that mainly
consist of quartzitic sandstone, siltstone and shaly
siltstone, dark and red shale and igneous rocks.

Thickness of these layers varies from some

centimeters to 3.5 m. The attitude of the bedding
planes has no considerable changes in dip and dip
direction. There are uniform bedding throughout the
powerhouse area with deep and dip direction of
55/195. It is noteworthy that during excavation of the
powerhouse pilot , three shear zones with an almost
4050 cm thickness were encountered. All of these
features are parallel to the bedding planes. The
most important tectonic phenomenon of Siah Bisheh
area is the fault called as the Main Thrust Fault with
a dip/dip direction of 78/028 and an almost E-W
trend (Lahmeyer-Iran Water and Power Resources
Co., 2005).
2.2 Groundwater Level
Three piezometer boreholes NGW1, NGW5, and
NGW6 are considered for evaluating the hydraulic
head distribution surrounding the PHC and TC. The
location of these boreholes toward the caverns is
shown in Fig. 1. The groundwater level in the
piezometer boreholes were continuously monitored
in different months.
The groundwater level in the NGW1 and NGW5
piezometr boreholes are available after January
2006 and it is available after December 2007 for
NGW6. The maximum and minimum groundwater
levels in the NG1 and NGW5 were recorded in
October 2006 and May 2007. Since the
groundwater levels in NGW6 are not available
before December 2006, the maximum and minimum
groundwater levels in this borehole were recorded in
October 2007 and March 2007, respectively.
Difference between the maximum and minimum
groundwater levels in the NGW1, NGW5, and
NGW6 are 25, 45, and 8 m, respectively. The
maximum and minimum difference between
groundwater level in the NGW1 and NGW5
boreholes are 130 and 180 m, respectively, and the
average difference is 115 m. moreover, the
maximum and minimum difference between
groundwater level in the NGW1 and NGW6
boreholes are 20 and -1.8 m, respectively, and the
average difference is 9.5 m.
2.3 Fractures Geometrical Characterization
Fracture's data collection was performed on the four
vertical walls and the ceiling of the PHC. Fractures
were mapped individually and for any observed
fracture, trace length and orientation were recorded.
Arrangement of the PHC walls establishes three
perpendicular available mapping surfaces that
provide a meaningful fracture sampling possibility
with about total 13,500 m2 area in threedimensional space and a total of 7,380 observed
fractures.
All the recorded fractures were analyzed and
grouped into three main fracture sets, here so-called
M1, M2, and M3, based on the similarity of the
orientation. A non-systematic class, here so-called

22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL

M4, was considered for randomly oriented fractures

that lie outside the limits of the three main sets.
Each fracture sets were defined as described above
by specifying a range of orientations in threedimensional space. The Fisher orientation
distribution is fitted to the measured data for the
three main fracture sets. For non-systematic class
M4, orientation is assumed to be a stationary
random function independent of all other main
fracture sets.
The fracture traces were designated for each
main fracture sets and non-systematic class and
analyzed statically. The analyses of fracture trace
lengths from each sets and class suggested that the
log-normal distribution is appropriate to describe
trace length data. Fracture density is estimated from
the observed fracture as the number of fractures per
unit area. For each fracture sets and non-systematic
class, the estimated statistical parameters of the
orientation, trace length distributions, and fracture
density, by considering the correcting for the biases,
are shown in Table 1.

Figure 1. Location of piezometer boreholes NGW1,

NGW5, and NGW6 surrounding the PHC and TC
with two different types of vertical section S1 and S2
for inflow simulations.
Table 1. Statistical characterizations of the
orientation, trace length, and fracture density for all
fracture classes.
Parameter

M1

Fracture class
M2
M3

M4

Relative frequency

37.8

23.6

11.8

26.7

Fisher constant
Fracture density
(m-2)
Mean trace length
(m)
Trace length Std.

12.34

2.64

16.3

----*

0.20

0.12

0.06

0.14

0.93

0.93

1.02

1.00

0.44

0.46

0.42

0.42

* For non-systematic class M4, orientation is

assumed to be a stationary random function.

SIMULATION WITH THE DFN

3.1 DFN Generation and Regularization

The usual practice in DFN modeling is to assume
that most of the geometrical parameters of each
fracture set can be statistically distributed. The
numerical model developed for this study, so-called
FNETF, uses a Monte Carlo approach to generate
two-dimensional discrete fracture networks based
on the statistics of the fracture-geometry
parameters.
The individual fractures in the generation region
are created one set at a time, and the number of
fractures in each set is controlled by the areal
density (number of fractures per unit area). A center
point position for each fracture is determined by
randomly selecting in the generation region.
Fracture trace lengths are assigned with the
cumulative probability density function of the trace
length. The orientation of fractures is calculated
using following respective cumulative probability
density function, which is assumed to follow a
Fisher distribution, as is commonly adopted in DFN
modeling.
Fractures crossing the boundaries of the flow
domain are truncated at the boundary and out of
domain fractures are deleted. Because the
generated fractures are finite, a relatively large
number of fractures in the network may not be
perfectly connected and some of them are not
contribute in flow process. These hydraulically
inactive fractures should be removed from the
domain and can be recognized as isolated subnetworks and singly connected fractures, which
have not complete interconnection between other
percolating fractures or flow domain boundaries.
Moreover, the dead-ends of the interconnected
fractures are deleted and the network will be
regularized. After this regularization, the DFN model
becomes complete percolating graphs.
3.2 Simulation Domain
The DFN simulation in fractured media around both
PHC and TC has been studied within two different
practice cases through two different types of vertical
section i.e. S1 and S2 as shown in Fig. 1. The type
S1 section crosses over both PHC and TC, hence
DFN and inflow possibility could be simulated
around both caverns simultaneously. On the other
hand, the type S2 section only crosses TC and as a
result, it could only be used for possibility
assessment of ground water inflow into TC.
A flow domain of 122m width and 129.75m height
was used to assess possible inflow into both PHC
and TC through section S1. The PHC with total
width of 30m and height of 40m was located in the
lower left edge, and the TC with total width of 16m
and height of 28m was situated in the upper right
edge of the considered domain (Fig. 2a). Then
again a flow domain of 66m width and 88m height

M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh

was used for possibility assessment of ground water

inflow into TC through section S2 (Fig. 2b). The TC
was located in the middle of the second domain in
such a way that there was a 25m distance between
vertical walls of the cavern and vertical boundaries
of the domain and also a 30m distance between
bottom of the cavern and lower boundary of the
domain. The main input data for DFN generation
such as orientation, trace length, and density of
fractures are shown in Table 1.
With regard to the statistical nature of fractures
geometry, a reliable analysis dictates that DFN
realizations of the domain should be examined
before launching the simulation procedure of water
flow in the vicinity of caverns. Therefore, large
number of DFN realizations shall be generated to
ensure that the results are not dependent on
specific fracture geometry arrangement and to
produce more representative of stochastic
behaviour of the fractured media. Consequently,
450 and 500 DFN realization models were
generated around the caverns for possibility
assessment of ground water inflow simulation in S1
and S2 sections, respectively.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Simulation results
Heterogeneity of fractured media due to the
stochastic geometry and the limited length of
fractures is the reason why all fractures in the
domain are not hydraulically active. Therefore use
of the percolation concept is necessary for
interpretation and analysis of simulation results. In
order to have a percolated flow domain, there must
be present an unlimited cluster of hydraulically
active fractures in the flow domain. In order to
observe water flow into a cavern (the so-called
percolated cavern), at least one fracture member of
the unlimited cluster must cross the cavern walls.
Following geometrical analysis of fracture
network around caverns in section S1, three
different states of percolation are observed. In some
DFN realizations both PHC and TC are percolated
simultaneously. In some DFN realizations neither is
percolated and in some other realizations only one
of the two is distinguished as percolated cavern.
Simulation results show that 27 out of 448 total DFN
realizations are not percolated at all while the
remained 421 models (94% of the total) are partially
percolated. Among the percolated realizations, in 56
models (12.5% of the total), only PHC is percolated,
in 90 realizations (20% of the total) only TC is
percolated and in 275 realizations (61.4% of the
total) both are percolated. All in all, 331 realizations
(74% of the total) have shown percolation for PHC
and 365 models (82% of the total) have shown
percolation for TC.

Figure 2. Flow domains for DFN simulation and

possibility assessment of ground water inflow into
caverns: (a) S1 cross section and (b) S2 cross
section.
In every domain realization through section S1,
averagely 8,672 fractures have been generated.
After removing fractures generated inside TC and
PHC, on average, 7,975 fractures will be present in
each flow domain realization. Amongst them, only a
limited number is hydraulically active. Results of
simulation for different states of caverns percolation
have been summarized in Table 2. With regard to
the results shown in Table 2, a general description
can be derived for percolation behaviour in fractured
network around caverns that can be discussed as
follows.

22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL

To reach a percolated flow domain, there must

be present an unlimited cluster of fractures in the
flow domain in which fractures are hydraulically
active. Therefore, in order to be observed water
inflow in caverns there must be at least one fracture
in the unlimited cluster membership that crosses the
cavern walls.
By scrutinizing the minimum number of active
fractures present in the domain for different DFN
realizations, it is concluded that in order to come up
with percolated PHC, there must be at least 103
(1.3% of the total) active fractures in the whole
domain. For percolated TC this value is 85 (1% of
the total) and to have both caverns percolated
simultaneously, the minimum number of active
fractures should be 275 (3.4% of the total).
The average number of active fractures in the
domain for different geometrical models can provide
a clue about the average size of the unlimited
cluster present in the flow domain. Table 2,
demonstrates that to have either of PHC or TC
percolated, on average 15% of total existing
fractures in the domain must be members of the
unlimited cluster. It also shows that to have both
caverns percolated simultaneously, on average 17%
of total existing fractures in the domain must belong
to the unlimited cluster. In addition, maximum 38.6%
of the total existing fractures in the domain
contributed to flow.

Table 3. Summary of simulation results for section

S2.
Number of active fractures
Percolation
state
Max. Min. Mean
Std.
All realizations

1359

501.2

307.5

TC percolated

1359

90

564.4

266

4.2 Observed inflow into caverns

The water inflow into caverns was measured during
and after PHC and TC construction. The PHC and
TC were separated to different parts and the flow
out from the rock into each part was individually
measured. In the PHC, the water inflow was
observed and recorded in three different parts as
0+003 chainage (PI), 0+020 chainage (PII), and
0+071 to 0+085 chainages (PIII), which are shown
in Fig. 3a. The water inflow was recorded in seven
different parts in TC as 0+000 to 0+010 chainages
(RI), 0+011 to 0+020 chainages (RII), 0+021 to
0+030 chainages (RIII), 0+031 to 0+040 chainages
(RIV), 0+041 to 0+060 chainages (RV), 0+101 to
0+110 chainages (RVI), and 0+120 to 0+125
chainages (RVII), which are shown in Fig. 3b.

Table 2. Summary of simulation results for different

states of caverns percolation.
Number of active fractures
Percolation state
Max. Min. Mean
Std.
All realizations
3079
0
1047.3 679.5
PHC percolated
3079 103 1225.7 640.3
TC percolated
3079
85 1190.8 640.4
Both PHC and TC
3079 257 1349.7 606.4
percolated
Following geometrical analysis of DFN around
TC in section S2, two states of percolation are
observed i.e. percolated and unpercolated TC.
Simulation results show that 56 out of 500 total DFN
realizations are not percolated while the remained
444 models (89% of the total) show percolation for
TC. In every domain realization, averagely 3,180
fractures have been generated. After removing
fractures generated inside TC, on average, 2,967
fractures will be present in each flow domain
realization. Results of simulation for section S2 have
been summarized in Table 3.
Based on the results shown in Table 3, it is
concluded that in order to come up with percolated
TC in section S2, there must be at least 90 (3% of
the total) active fractures in the whole domain and
on average 564 out of 2,967 total existing fractures
(19% of the total) contributed to flow in the whole
domain.

Figure 3. Variation of the measured inflow into

caverns for different sections: (a) PHC and (b) TC.

M. Javadi, M. Sharifzadeh

The flow out into PI shows a small water inflow of

0.4 Lit/min from February to May 2005 that
increased suddenly to 2 Lit/Min on June 2005 and
uninspiring after July 2005. For PII section, only a
spring with 1.5 Lit/min inflow was recorded on June
2005. On the other hand, the flow out into PIII has
been constantly observed during and after PHC
construction.
In RVII section, an inflow with average rate of 0.5
Lit/Min has been recorded between November 2004
to August 2005 and from August 2005 to January
2006 there has not been observed any flow in this
section. On February 2006, the inflow suddenly
increased in this section and reached 2.5 Lit/Min,
relating with increasing the water inflow into RI and
RIV sections, and uninspiring after October 2006.
The recorded data in PI, PII, and RVII sections
show a short-lived water inflow into the North part of
the PHC. Since water inflow has been recorded in
specific periods of time in these areas, it can be
concluded that these sections of caverns are locally
percolated and due to the low level of underground
water, there is no water inflow. This release of
groundwater level throughout the surrounding rock
mass is related to construction activities that
changes the groundwater in-site conditions and
corresponding to an adjustment of the ground water
level within the system. But in some specific time
intervals, water inflow was recorded in these
sections due to the increase in the level of
underground water. As it was explained earlier in
the text, there is much difference in groundwater
levels of boreholes NGW1 and NGW6. However,
the difference of groundwater level between
boreholes NGW1 and NGW5 is manifest as
compared with that of boreholes NGW1 and NGW6.
Therefore, it can be concluded that a sudden fall
(discontinuity) in groundwater level is anticipated
within NGW1 and NGW5 boreholes and the North
part of caverns is locally unsaturated.
4.3 Comparison Between Results
Regarding to saturation state of caverns, only the
South part of cavern from 0+062.8 to 0+131.6
chainages of PHC (equal to 0+034 to 0+096.8
chainages of TC) is selected for comparison
between DFN simulation in S1 section and
observed percolation results. Comparison between
observed and section S1 simulation results for
different states of caverns percolation have been
summarized in Table 4. Throughout this caverns
part, observed water inflows indicate that 22.2 and
57.3 percents of total length have percolated state
for TC and PHC, respectively. In addition, 18.7 % of
total length is not percolated at all for both PHC and
TC. The same calculated values from DFN
simulation in section S1 are 74%, 82%, and 6%,
respectively.
Comparison between DFN simulation in S2
section and observed percolation results is

performed for the South end part of TC form 0+0 to

0+034 chainages. Water inflow has been observed
in all length of this part of TC while 89% of the total
length of this part showed percolated state in DFN
simulation.
Comparison between results indicates that for S1
section, the DFN simulation predicted more
possibility of water inflow into caverns than
observed one. Existing impermeable zones around
caverns in this area can be considered as the one of
the important reason of this behaviour; a presume
that should be analyzed using maps and geological
sections. A number of geological features exist in
the area that can have relationship with this ground
water behaviour in PHC and TC. Among them, one
can mention presence of a sliding fault in the
chainage of 0+080 in PHC with dip/direction of
70/305 and its tail in chainage of 0+105 in TC, shear
zones, and igneous dykes that are also related to
anticipated discontinuity in groundwater level. In
addition, there is an appropriate correspondence
between inflow possibility through S2 section DFN
simulation and the observations, which are related
to the less heterogeneous geological condition in
this part of TC.
Table 4. Comparison between observed and
simulation results through section S1.
Percolation Length
(Percent of Total)
Percolation state
Observed Simulation
PHC percolated
22.2%
74%
Just PHC percolated
22.2%
12.5%
TC percolated
57.3%
82%
Just TC percolated
57.3%
20%
Both PHC and TC
0.0
61.4%
Percolated
Both PHC and TC
18.7%
6%
Unercolated

5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, the applicability of DFN realizations for
possibility assessment of water inflow into
underground
excavation
constructing
in
heterogeneous fractured rock masses is discussed
throughout near-field scale domain. A new
computational code so-called FNETF has been
developed for generating DFN generation and
regularization. The main input data for analysis are
captured from site investigations and measurements
in Siah Bisheh pumped storage project at the North
of Iran. Due to the negligible matrix permeability of
rock mass surrounding powerhouse and transformer
caverns, DFN model was selected to assess
possibility of water inflow. The PHC and TC were
separated to different parts and the flow out from
the rock into each part was individually measured
during and after caverns construction. The DFN

22nd WORLD MINING CONGRESS & EXPO 11-16 September 2011 / ISTANBUL

simulation in fractured media around both PHC and

TC has been studied within two different practice
cases through two different types of vertical cross
section i.e. section S1 crossing over both PHC and
TC, and section S2 crossing over only TC. The
possibility of ground water inflow into caverns was
estimated using percolation behavaiour of DFN
realizations in S1 and S2 sections and compared
with observed water inflow fields data.
Following geometrical analysis of fracture
network around caverns in section S1, three
different states of percolation are observed. In some
DFN realizations both PHC and TC are percolated
simultaneously. In some DFN realizations neither is
percolated and in some other realizations only one
of the two is distinguished as percolated cavern. To
reach a percolated flow domain, there must be
present an unlimited cluster of fractures in the flow
domain in which fractures are hydraulically active.
Simulation results in section S1 show that in order
to come up with percolated cavern, at least 1.3, 1,
and 3.4 percents of fractures in the whole domain
should be hydraulically active for PHC, TC, and both
PHC and TC, respectively. In addition, maximum
38.6% of the total existing fractures in the domain
contributed to flow. Observed water inflows indicate
that 22.2 and 57.3 percents of total length have
percolated state for TC and PHC, respectively. In
addition, 18.7 % of total length is not percolated at
all for both PHC and TC. The same calculated
values from DFN simulation in section S1 are 74%,
82%, and 6%, respectively. Comparison between
results indicates that, the DFN simulation
overestimated the possibility of water inflow into
caverns than observed one for S1 section. Existing
impermeable zones around caverns in this area can
be considered as the one of the important reason of
this difference. On the other hand, water inflow has
been observed in all length of the South end part of
TC, while 89% of the total length of this part showed
percolated state in S2 section DFN simulation.
Comparison between results indicates that there is
an appropriate correspondence between inflow
possibility through S2 section DFN simulation and
the observations, which are related to the less
heterogeneous geological condition in this part of
TC.
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