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CHAPTER 5. UNDERGROUND FLOW

Contents

5.1 A two-dimensional steady state flow problem 105

5.2 Theory 109

5.2.1 Material data 110

5.2.2 Boundary conditions 111

5.3 An example of transient flow 112

5.3.1 Preprocessing: geometry and boundary conditions 113

5.3.2 Analysis and drivers 115

5.3.3 Material data 116

5.3.4 Results 117

5.4 References 118

Chapter 5. Underground Flow Page 104

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5.1 A two-dimensional steady state flow problem

Dupuit flow towards a trench is a common problem in civil engineering. Let’s consider
the example shown in Fig. 5.1. It corresponds to a steady state flow with known
upstream and downstream head.

Fig. 5.1 Flow towards a trench, geometry

ZSOIL DATA: Ex_5_1_Dupuit_flow.inp

Let’s open the input file and examine the data (Fig. 5.2). Under Control/Analysis &
Drivers, we see that the problem is defined as Plane (strain) flow, with a Time
dependent/steady state driver. A single time step is sufficient in this case since flow is
steady, but iterations (within the step) will be needed to find the free surface.

Fig.5.2 Driver for flow analysis

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Under Assembly/Preprocessing we discover the mesh and boundary conditions. There

are 3 types of boundary conditions:

- “no flow” on the upper and lower edge; this is a default boundary condition,
which does not need any input.
- Imposed pressure: select FE model/Boundary Condition/Pressure
BC/Update Parameters , click on the left boundary; if parameter screen does
not pop up, use scale, change sign, then diagram show reverse, then repeat:
update parameters and click again on pressure diagram, values can now be
updated.
- The third type of boundary condition is a seepage condition, it is implemented as
a seepage element: go back to FE model/Seepage/Direction/Show a set of
black line segments will point outwards of the seepage boundary (Fig. 5.3). This
type of boundary condition is used whenever a seepage out- or inflow can be
expected. The boundary condition will impose a flow proportional to the difference
of pressure between in- and outside the boundary, if the medium is saturated
inside, and a “no flow” condition if the medium is not saturated inside.

Exit preprocessor now without saving.

Seepage
boundary condition

no flow

Flow % pressure
Pressure difference
boundary
condition

Fig. 5.3 Flow boundary conditions

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Under Assembly/Materials we observe the presence of 2 materials:

Continuum/Elastic and Seepage/Seepage. The first one is there only because we
solve the flow problem on the whole (solid) domain using partial saturation, default
values of E ,  and  can be left as is, they have no influence.
Flow under steady state requires the permeability KDarcy (which can be oriented is space
with angle ) and F, the fluid unit weight to be specified. In addition, due to possible
partial saturation, (1/) the thickness of the transition from full to residual saturation,
and Sr the residual saturation must be given. Other data, default or not, can be ignored.

Fig. 5.4 Material data for Continuum

Fig. 5.5 Material data for Seepage

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Seepage requires specification of Kv, a penalty factor, multiplier of K [m3/(Ns)], an

internally optimized permeability factor which will regulate the outflow through the
seepage surface. Leave default value = 1, and see theory manual for details.

Analysis/Run Analysis can be performed in 1 step, but a few iterations are needed to
find the free surface.

Results/Postprocessing/Graph Option/Maps. After running the problem, the plot

of pressure maps indicates the position of the free surface, and settings can be changed
to improve the visibility. Settings/Graph Contents, with imposed scale (Min = 0,
Max = 1), indicates a free surface which corresponds to what is expected (Fig. 5.6).

Remarks:
- The free surface does not change too significantly in this problem, when K v is
changed, but the outflow does. When Kv is increased permeability and therefore
outflow increases.
- The free surface corresponds to zero pressure, pressures above the free surface
are positive, but their contribution to total stress in the medium is multiplied by
the saturation, so that the effective water pressure above the free surface is in
fact zero:  ij   ij ' Sp ij and Sp  0 above the free surface.
tot

Fig. 5.6 Color maps of pore pressure

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5.2 Theory

Underground Darcy flow is governed by a diffusion equation, expressed here in terms of

pressure as the nodal unknown. The equations for partially saturated Darcy flow are
given in Table 5.1.
The approach adopted in ZSOIL considers that the flow domain coincides with the soil
domain, always, saturation will ultimately define the limits of flow. The formulation
accounts for partial saturation and the free surface corresponds to the p=0 line in Fig
5.6.

In table 5.1, the continuity equation expresses that a local source induces a divergent
flow divergence and a local time-dependent pressure variation. The flow conditions can
be transient, in this case all terms of the continuity equation are active, or steady
state, in which case there is no pressure change in time and the corresponding term in
the equation, cp , can be ignored.

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Table 5.1 Equations of partially saturated underground flow

𝑣𝑘,𝑘 − 𝑐𝑝 = 𝑓; 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝑣: 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑦 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑝: 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑓: 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒
𝑝
𝑣𝑖 = −𝑘𝑖𝑗 𝑘𝑟 (𝑆)(− 𝐹 + 𝑧),𝑗 ; Darcy ′ s law 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑕 𝐾𝑖𝑗 = 𝑘𝑖𝑗 𝑘𝑟
𝛾
𝑘𝑖𝑗 = 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑗 = 𝑘𝛿𝑖𝑗 ;
𝑘𝑟 , 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑆, ( 𝑘𝑟 = 1 𝑖𝑓 𝑆 = 1)
𝑝
− 𝐹 + 𝑧 ; 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑕𝑒𝑎𝑑, 𝛾 𝐹 : 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑕𝑡, 𝑧 ∶ 𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒
𝛾
𝑆 𝑑𝑆
𝑐 = 𝑛( 𝐹 − ); 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡,
𝛽 𝑑𝑝
𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑛, 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑘 modulus 𝛽𝐹 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦: 𝑛 = 𝑒/1 + 𝑒), 𝑒 = 𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 = (𝑣𝑜𝑙. 𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠/𝑣𝑜𝑙. 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑)

_______________________________________________________________________

If the flow is confined, the medium fully saturated, and the flow condition steady, then
the problem is linear; it can be solved in a single step without iterations. But most of the
time the exact position of the free surface is unknown a priori, it is part of the problem to
be solved, the problem becomes therefore nonlinear and iterations are needed even for
the steady state flow, a fortiori within each time-step in the transient case.

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5.2.1 Material data

Material data needed include Darcy’s coefficient K, and F, the fluid’s specific weight, in
the basic version; all other parameters are selected by default. In the advanced
version the fluid compressibility F and two new coefficients are introduced, (1/) [m], a
measure of the thickness of the transition from full saturation to residual saturation, and
Sr which is the second parameter.
_______________________________________________________________________
Table 5.2 Material data for flow problems

Steady state saturated flow

K ij [m / s ] : Darcy ' s permeability coefficient , often a scalar K
γ F [ N / m3 ] : fluid specific weight
Steady state partially saturated (e.g . free surface) flow :K,γ F and
(1/α)[m]: thickness of transition from full to residual saturation Sr [ ]
K v : seepage constant multiplier
Transient partially saturated (e.g . free surface) flow : K,γ F ,α, S r , K v
β F [ N / m 2 ] : fluid bulk mod ulus
eo [ ] : void ratio (vol.of voids / vol. of solid ), from which
n  e /(1  e) : porosity, and
  nS  w  (1  n)  s  mass / unit vol. of 2 phase medium
 w  mass / unit vol. of water;  s mass /  unit vol. of solid
_______________________________________________________________________

Material data  and Sr depend strongly on the granulometric structure of the medium,
values taken from literature are given in Table 5.3.
_______________________________________________________________________
Table 5.3 Flow parameters from [Yang & al. 2004]

Type of soil  Sr
Gravely Sand 100 0
Medium Sand 10 0
Fine Sand 8 0
Clayey Sand 1-1.7 0.23-0.09

[Yang & al. 2004] Factors affecting drying and wetting soil-water characteristic curves of
sandy soils. Canadian Geotech. J. 41, pp. 908-920, 2004.
_______________________________________________________________________

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5.2.2 Boundary conditions

5.2.2.1 Pressure and flow boundary conditions

Three types of boundary conditions need to be considered: imposed pressure (in blue),
imposed flux (in black), and seepage (in red), as summarized in Figure 5.7.

Fig. 5.7 Flow boundary conditions

Pressure is prescribed at nodes where the pressure is known, it is used here to introduce
boundary conditions corresponding to the left free surface, a linear pressure distribution.
A “no flow” condition, q=0, is imposed at the bottom, this condition is natural, it is
applied “by default”, like the zero surface traction present by default in deformation
analysis.

5.2.2.2 Seepage
The seepage boundary condition, in red on the figure, enables us to handle seepage on
free surfaces, a situation which is frequently encountered, and it also serves to model
drains; it corresponds to a Darcy type equation over a pressure jump. The seepage
element has two layers, internal and external. External pressure, zero by default, is
prescribed on the external layer, and internal pressures are computed by the program on
the internal layer. The boundary condition will switch automatically from no flow to
pressure driven flow, depending on internal saturation, see Table 5.4.
_______________________________________________________________________
Table 5.4 Equation of seepage boundary condition [Aubry & Ozanam, 1988]

𝑚
𝑞𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝐾𝑣 𝐾 𝑝𝑒𝑥𝑡 − 𝑝int ; 𝐾𝑣 is specified by the user, by default 𝐾𝑣 = 1
𝑠
− 𝑤𝑕𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑣  0 ∶ no outflow takes place, 𝑡𝑕𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐𝑕𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛
𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑕𝑒𝑛 𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑆 < 1 𝑖𝑠 detected 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑕𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛.
− 𝑤𝑕𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑣 is large: internal and external pressure will be forced equal, and seepage flow takes place.
𝑇𝑕𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐𝑕𝑒𝑑 on 𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑕𝑒𝑛 𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑆 = 1 𝑖𝑠 detected 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑕𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛.

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Referring to Figure 5.7 we observe that the water table intersects the soil surface above
the downstream water table. The position of the intersection is an unknown a priori; it
will depend on permeability, domain geometry and upstream head. We cannot therefore
anticipate which boundary condition to apply and where: pressure or “no flow”. This
situation will be handled by the “seepage surface element”. The seepage coefficient Kv
depends on the properties of the interface and is user defined. The condition will switch
automatically from “seepage” to “no flow” across the border when internal saturation is
detected to be less than 1, and vice-versa. As a rule, seepage boundary conditions will
be applied whenever boundary conditions are susceptible to change.

5.2.2.3 Fluid head

Fluid heads are a convenient way to introduce pressure boundary conditions which
change in time. Their use is illustrated in the following example

5.3 An example of transient flow

An example of transient flow with variable pressure head boundary conditions illustrated
in Fig. 5.8 is discussed next. A rectangular dam is subjected to a rapid filling followed by
a rapid drawdown on its upstream side. The analysis is carried out to determine the
time-evolution of internal pressures within the domain.

Fig. 5.8 Filling followed by drawdown behind a rectangular dam

Remark:
- You can either follow the description of the mesh and boundary conditions
creation below, or open ZSOIL data: Ex_5_2_FillDrawDown2D.inp.

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5.3.1 Preprocessing: geometry and boundary conditions

Enter the geometrical preprocessor by selecting menu option
Assembly/Preprocessing. First, switch off the grid (press the G key) and the axes
(press the A key). Next, define the contour of the mesh. For this, move to Macro
Model/Point/Create/Point option, and create the following points, using the Apply
button: (0; 0) (0; 20) (10; 20) (10; 0). Leave third coordinate z = 0.
Press CTRL-F to optimize zoom with the newly created points. Now move to Macro
Model/Objects/Line/By 2 Points and define the contour of the mesh. Then click on
the Close button. Select option Macro Model/Subdomain/Create/Continuum inside
contour, and click inside of the domain. Now, select the Mesh/Create virtual mesh
method and click inside the subdomain. Structured mesh type is selected by default, as
this subdomain has four control points. Set splits to 10 x 20 and click on Create virtual
mesh.
Select Mesh/Virtual -> Real mesh method and click inside of the subdomain. Then,
press CTRL-M in order to hide the macro model, and to leave only the FE model.
Select the edges along the two vertical faces of the domain using the tool identified with
a red arrow in Fig. 5.9 and clicking successively on the top and bottom nodes of the
boundaries. Move to FE Model/Seepage/Create/On edge(s). Set seepage material
number = 2. Move to menu Selections/Unselect All.
Select option FE Model/Node/Outline/In zoom box and select all nodes belonging to
the left boundary of the domain. Move to FE Model/Boundary Condition/Pressure
BC/Fluid head on selected nodes. Set fluid head = 1 m and load function = 1 (see
Fig. 5.10). Move to menu Selections/Unselect All.
Finally move to FE Model/Boundary Condition/Pressure BC/Create…/On node
and set pore pressure = 0 to the node at the bottom-left corner of the mesh.
You may now exit the graphical preprocessor and save your work (File/Exit menu, and
answer Yes). Back in the principal Z_SOIL screen, select File/Save menu.

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Fig. 5.9 Selecting edges and creating seepage elements

Fig.5.10 Pressure head definition and associated load function

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5.3.2 Analysis and drivers

The solution procedure starts with an Initial State/Steady State analysis, this analysis
is performed at time t = 0, in one step, with some iterations, it will define the initial
steady state flow. This analysis is followed by a Time Dependent/Transient analysis
(Fig. 5.11), during which the upstream pressure head boundary condition is updated
using a load function (see Fig. 5.12). Time dependent pressure head boundary conditions
are a convenient way to introduce boundary conditions which vary in time; Observe that
pressure head boundary conditions are, as a rule, associated with seepage boundary
conditions. All other input are similar to the preceding example and can be followed
directly in ZSOIL.

Fig. 5.11 Drivers specification for fill-drawdown analysis

Remark:
- Observe that, for obvious reasons, pressure head boundary conditions are always
associated with seepage boundary conditions, since boundary conditions have to
be able to switch from imposed pressures to “no flow” condition q = 0.

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Fig. 5.12 Load function associated with water level on the left boundary

5.3.3 Material data

Flow under transient state requires the permeability KDarcy (which can be oriented is
space), and F, the fluid unit weight, specification, in addition, due to possible partial
saturation, (1/) [m] the thickness of the transition from full to residual saturation, and
Sr the residual saturation must be specified. Other data default or not, can again be
ignored.

Fig. 5.13 Material properties

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5.3.4 Results
The evolution in pressure distribution as a function of time is illustrated in Figure 5.14.
Observe that the use of seepage boundary conditions allows to capture the strong
gradients along the boundaries, which result from the fast change in boundary
conditions.

Fig. 5.14 Pore pressure distribution in time

Remark:
- In Fig. 5.14, pore pressures scale has been set to min = -1 and max = 0 in order
to identify clearly the free surface, corresponding to zero pressure.

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5.4 References

[Aubry & Ozanam, 1988] Free Surface tracking through non-saturated models. In
Numerical methods in geomechanics: 757-763, Swoboda (ed.), Balkema, Rotterdam
[Yang & al. 2004] Factors affecting drying and wetting soil-water characteristic curves of
sandy soils. Canadian Geotech. J. 41, pp. 908-920, 2004.

Chapter 5. Underground Flow Page 118