SVFlux Examples Manual

2D / 3D Seepage Modeling Software
Examples Manual
Written by:
Murray Fredlund, P.Eng., Ph.D.
Rob Thode, P.Eng., B.Sc.
Jim Zhang, Ph.D.
Todd Myhre, B.Sc.
Edited by:
Rob Thode, P.Eng., B.Sc.
Murray Fredlund, P.Eng., Ph.D.
SoilVision Systems Ltd.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Software License
The software described in this manual is furnished under a license agreement. The software may
be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Software Support
Support for the software is furnished under the terms of a support agreement.
Copyright
Information contained within this Examples Manual is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by
SoilVision Systems Ltd. The SVFLUX software is a proprietary product and trade secret of SoilVision
Systems. The Examples Manual may be reproduced or copied in whole or in part by the software
licensee for use with running the software. The Examples Manual may not be reproduced or copied
in any form or by any means for the purpose of selling the copies.
Disclaimer of Warranty
SoilVision Systems Ltd. reserves the right to make periodic modifications of this product without
obligation to notify any person of such revision. SoilVision does not guarantee, warrant, or make
any representation regarding the use of, or the results of, the programs in terms of correctness,
accuracy, reliability, currentness, or otherwise; the user is expected to make the final evaluation in
the context of his (her) own problems.
Trademarks
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
SoilVision is a registered trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVOFFICE is a trademark of SoilVision Systems, Ltd.
CHEMFLUX is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVFLUX is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVHEAT is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVAIRFLOW is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVSOLID is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
SVSLOPE is a registered trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
ACUMESH is a trademark of SoilVision Systems Ltd.
FlexPDE is a registered trademark of PDE Solutions Inc.
Copyright 2011
by
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed in Canada
Last Updated: March 25, 2013
Spillways
Page 3 of 97
SPILLWAYS........................................................................................................................9
1.1 SEEPAGEBELOWSHEETPILING......................................................................................................9
1.1.1 Purpose............................................................................................................................9
1.1.2 GeometryandBoundaryConditions................................................................................9
1.1.3 RequestedInformation...................................................................................................10
CANALS............................................................................................................................12
2.1 NARROWCANALLATERALFLOW(PIPEFILL)....................................................................................12
2.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................12
2.1.2 GeometryandBoundaryConditions..............................................................................12
2.1.3 MaterialProperties........................................................................................................13
2.1.4 ResultsandDiscussions..................................................................................................13
2.2 IRRIGATIONCANALWITHPUMPING..............................................................................................13
2.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................14
2.3 PUMPSLOPE............................................................................................................................15
2.3.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................15
EARTHCOVERS.................................................................................................................18
3.1 LANDFILLSOILCOVER.................................................................................................................18
3.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................18
3.2 CHANGINGROOTZONEINRESIDENTIALSLABONGROUNDSTUDY....................................................19
3.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................19
3.3 GROWINGROOTS......................................................................................................................21
3.3.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................21
3.4 DAY1......................................................................................................................................23
3.4.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................23
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3.5 ONEDAYPRECIPITATION&EVAPORATION.....................................................................................25
3.5.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................25
3.6 THINCOVER.............................................................................................................................27
3.6.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................27
3.7 COVER.....................................................................................................................................29
3.7.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................29
3.7.3 Materialproperties........................................................................................................30
4
EARTHDAMS...................................................................................................................33
4.1 CLASSICEARTHFILLDAM............................................................................................................33
4.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................33
4.2 RAPIDRESERVOIRDRAWDOWN..................................................................................................35
4.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................35
4.3 FLOWBENEATHEARTHDAM.......................................................................................................36
4.3.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................37
4.4 EARTHDAMCUTOFF..................................................................................................................38
4.4.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................38
4.5 COMPLEXEARTHDAM...............................................................................................................39
4.5.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................40
4.6 DAMINVALLEYSIMPLE..............................................................................................................41
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4.6.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................42
4.7 MICADAM3D.........................................................................................................................44
4.7.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................44
4.8 MICADAM2D.........................................................................................................................45
4.8.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................45
4.9 DAMINVALLEY07....................................................................................................................47
4.9.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................47
4.10 PRESSURESINDAM................................................................................................................49
4.10.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................49
4.10.2 GeometryandBoundaryConditions...........................................................................49
4.10.3 MaterialProperties.....................................................................................................50
4.10.4 ResultsandDiscussions...............................................................................................50
4.11 EARTHFILLDAMSTO100.......................................................................................................50
4.11.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................51
4.12 EARTHDAMTOE....................................................................................................................52
4.12.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................52
4.13 CUTOFF................................................................................................................................53
4.13.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................53
4.14 CLAYDAMNOTCHEDSIMPLE....................................................................................................55
4.14.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................55
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4.15 EARTHDAMWITHTAILINGSPIT...............................................................................................56
4.15.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................56
4.16 EARTHDAMINIRREGULARVALLEY............................................................................................58
4.16.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................58
4.17 DRAINAGEBLANKET................................................................................................................61
4.17.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................61
4.18 THINSLOPINGCOREDAM.......................................................................................................64
4.18.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................64
5
3DMESHING....................................................................................................................67
5.1 PINCHTWOWAY......................................................................................................................67
5.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................67
5.2 PITSIMPLE...............................................................................................................................68
5.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................68
5.3 PINCHINGSIMPLE......................................................................................................................70
5.3.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................70
5.4 PILESIMPLE..............................................................................................................................72
5.4.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................72
COLUMNS........................................................................................................................75
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6.1 HEAPCOLUMN.........................................................................................................................75
6.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................75
7
WELLPUMPING...............................................................................................................77
7.1 FLUSHINGWELLS......................................................................................................................77
7.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................77
7.2 PUMPEDWELLSINGLE...............................................................................................................78
7.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................78
7.3 PLANINJECTOR.........................................................................................................................81
7.3.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................81
7.4 STRAIGHTRIVER........................................................................................................................83
7.4.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................83
7.5 WELLDEWATERINGWITHSHEETPILING........................................................................................85
7.5.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................85
7.6 PUMPINGWELLS.......................................................................................................................88
7.6.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................88
WASTEROCK....................................................................................................................91
8.1 WRP2....................................................................................................................................91
8.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................91
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MINETAILINGS................................................................................................................93
9.1 SINGLELAYERHEAPLEACHPAD...................................................................................................93
9.1.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................93
9.2 TWOLAYERHEAPLEACHPAD.....................................................................................................95
9.2.1 Purpose..........................................................................................................................95
Spillways
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1 SPILLWAYS
1.1 SEEPAGE BELOW SHEET PILING
Project:
Model:
Spillways
VerticalCutoff
Sheet Piling has been driven 5 meters into a sand layer that is 10 meters in thickness. The sand
layer is assumed to extend infinitely in the horizontal direction. The sheet piling is assumed to form
an impervious wall with no leakage between the individual sheet piles. The intent is to model the
movement of water flow through the sand and around the bottom of the sheet piling.
Software:
Dimensions:
Mode:
Saturation state:
1.1.1
SVFLUX
2D
Steady-state
Saturated flow only
Purpose
The purpose of this example is to illustrate the calculation of i) the flow regime, ii) the quantity of
the flow, and iii) the maximum flow gradients at the base of the sheet piling.
1.1.2
Geometry and Boundary Conditions
The following geometry will be utilized in the creation of the model.
NOTE:
Only the sand layer needs to be included in the solution. Select minimum and maximum xcoordinates for the lateral extent of the sand layer.
Geometry Details
5 meters
Water
(100.0, 20)
(100.5, 20)
5 meters
10 meters
Sand
Impervious
Figure 1
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Material Properties
Material Properties are only given for the sand layer because the underlying bedrock is assumed to
be impervious. The sheet piling is also assumed to be impervious and therefore does not need to
be modeled.
Sand
The sand is assumed to be isotropic and fully saturated. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is 1 x
10-4 m/s. The water storage modulus is not required for a steady-state analysis.
Boundary Conditions
1. The boundary between the water and the sand will have a hydraulic head boundary
condition equal to 5 meters.
2.
The side downstream of the sheet piling has a hydraulic head boundary condition
corresponding to water at the ground surface.
3.
The flow path down and around the sheet piling can be designated as being impervious.
4.
The bottom of the sand layer can be designated as an impervious boundary.
5.
The selected extents of the sand layer can be designated as impervious boundaries.
Specified Flux Section

Place a flux section through the bottom of the sheet piling for the calculation of flow below the
sheet piling.
NOTE:
It is not necessary to designate initial conditions since a linear, steady-state condition is
being solved.
1.1.3
1.
Requested Information
Plot the optimized finite element mesh that was automatically generated by SVFLUX.
(Show graphic output).
2.
a.
Where are the smallest finite elements located?
b.
What do the smaller finite elements suggest?
Plot contours of the dissipated hydraulic head (Use 10 contours). (Show graphic output).
a.
Where are the hydraulic head contours closest together?
b.
What does the closeness of the hydraulic head contours mean?
c.
Is the solution for hydraulic heads influenced by the coefficient of permeability

(hydraulic conductivity) of the sand? (Explain your answer).
3.
Determine the quantity of water flow passing below the sheet piling using a flux section.
a.
Perform an approximate, hand calculation to confirm the reasonableness of the

computer result.
4.
Reverse all boundary conditions (i.e., set the head boundaries to impervious and vice
versa), and solve for hydraulic head contours (Use 10 contours). Set a difference in
head across the geometry of 5 meters.

a.
5.
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At what angle do the hydraulic head contours cross from the above two solutions?
Plot the vectors showing the magnitude and direction of the flow velocities. (Show graphic
output).
6.
Plot the hydraulic gradient contours (i.e., i = change in head / change in distance). (Show
graphic output).
Canals
Page 12 of 97
2 CANALS
2.1 NARROW CANAL LATERAL FLOW (PIPEFILL)
Project:
Model:
Canals
PipeFill
The Pipe Fill example demonstrates the use of SVFLUX in analyzing the situation of a narrow canal.
This canal contains two concrete sidewalls of very low hydraulic conductivity. There is a berm on
either side against the concrete sidewalls. The flow through the canal and the resulting flow
patterns underneath the bottom of the concrete sidewalls are of importance in the seepage
modeling.
2.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of the seepage model is to ensure that the gradients at the bottom of the concrete
sidewalls do not get high.
2.1.2
The model is set up with the geometry shown below and the material regions are entered. It should
be noted at this time that the flux head boundary conditions are placed in the numerical model.
The boundary condition is assigned at the bottom of the canal and head boundary conditions are
also applied at the left and right sides of the model. A head boundary condition is also applied at
the base of the canal representing the elevation of the water in the canal.
Figure 2 Example geometry of the PipeFill
2.1.3
Canals
Page 13 of 97
Material Properties
The concrete is given a very low hydraulic conductivity of 3.28 x 10-12 m/s. This hydraulic
conductivity corresponds approximately to the conductivity of the concrete in a very dense state.
Saturated and unsaturated material properties are assigned to each material type.
When the model is run it is important to select plots of head, pore-water pressures, and gradients.
The gradients in the X and Y direction may be plotted with the use of the Plot Manager. It is
recommended that these plots be specified both in the finite element solver as well as output to an
ACUMESH model so the model variables can be visualized. The Sand, Silt Loam and Clay regions
are given average hydraulic properties consistent with their soil type.
2.1.4
Results and Discussions
Once the model is solved, plotting the gradients will allow a better view at where the maximum
gradient lies. In this case, the x-gradient has the highest value. A contour plot of the x-gradient
values can be seen below.
Figure 3 Contour plots for the PipeFill example model
2.2 IRRIGATION CANAL WITH PUMPING

Project:
Model:
Canals
Irrigation
The Irrigation model is presented to illustrate the use of the SVFLUX software for modeling of an
irrigation canal. The Irrigation canal in this case is lined with a clay material. It is desired to see the
resulting impact on the water table when water flows through the canal. It is also desired to
determine the pumping rates that can minimize the uplift water pressure on the clay liner in a
canal water-level drawdown situation.
It is assumed in this example that water is being maintained at consistent level in the canal for the
duration of the numerical modeling period. A steady-state numerical model is adequate for this
type of example.
2.2.1
Canals
Page 14 of 97
Purpose
The irrigation canal is designed in an area with a high water table. Additional wells are installed in
order to pump the area around the canal to keep the water table down and minimize the flow into
the canals. As such the pumping wells on either side of the canal are included in the numerical
model.
The purposes of this model are as follows:
1.
To determine the pumping rate required to reasonably lower the water table such that the
overall flow is away from the canal, and
2.
2.2.2
To determine the flux from the canal to the surrounding soil.
The boundary conditions on the numerical model are applied in order to determine two primary
aspects of the system. The first purpose of the model is to determine adequate pumping rates for
the wells. The approach taken with this model is a trial-and-error approach in which pumping
gradients are placed at the bottom of each well to simulate the pumping of wells.
The initial water table levels are then placed on the left and far right sides of the numerical model.
The canal water level is applied to the numerical model as a head boundary condition, which is
then placed on the upper surface of the clay layer in the numerical model.
The second purpose of the model involves determining the flow from the canal to the surrounding
soil. In order to accomplish this objective a flux boundary is named and the flux across this
boundary is reported in the Plot Manager dialog. The geometry of the model is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Geometry of the Irrigation Canal with pumping model
2.2.3
Material Properties
The material properties are assigned for the Sandy Clay, the Sand, and the aquifer deep in the
numerical model. The clay liner is relatively impermeable and has a lower permeability of
approximately 1 x 10-9 m/s.
2.2.4
Canals
Page 15 of 97
Once the irrigation model is analyzed the user can plot pore-water pressure and flow vectors. This
will allow the user to see the location of the water table around the irrigation canal.
An example of resulting pore of water pressures generated by this particular model is shown in
Figure 5. By the process of trial and error, the pumping rate required to reasonably lower the water
table such that the overall flow is away from the canal is -0.002 m3/s/m2 on each side of the canal.
Figure 5 Result of example model Irrigation

Once the model has been analyzed, the solver will report the flow through all flux sections. In this
case, the flow through Flux 1 is 4.3 x 10-5 m3/s, the flow through Flux 2 is 8.2 x 10-5 m3/s, and the
flow through Flux 3 is 4.3 x 10-5 m3/s.
2.3 PUMP SLOPE

Project:
Model:
Canals
PumpSlope
This model illustrates the use of SVFLUX to calculate flow out of a canal-type structure into the
surrounding soil.
2.3.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to calculate flow volumes which exit a canal-type structure. In this
model the overall flow regime is established as well as calculating the specific flow volume out of
the canal.
2.3.2
The geometry of the model is shown in Figure 6. A clay layer of approximately 0.25m thickness is
placed over the surrounding Silty Loam material. An overall canal depth of 2.0m is represented. A
flux section is placed on the upper boundary of the clay linear in order to sum flow past the
boundary.
Constant head boundary conditions are specified at 0.3 m on the right hand side of the model and
1.6 m on the left hand of the numerical model.
Canals
Page 16 of 97
Figure 6 Geometry of the Pump Slope example model
2.3.3
Material Properties
The canal itself is lined with a Clay type of material of which the intent is to inhibit flow into the
surrounding Silt material. The Clay is packed along the side slopes of the canal and has a
permeability of 1 x 10-6 m/s. Its unsaturated properties are represented with the Fredlund and Xing
fitting method for the soil-water characteristic curve and the Modified Campbell method for the
unsaturated portion of the hydraulic conductivity curve.
The Silty material has a hydraulic conductivity of 1.07 x 10-4 m/s and its unsaturated properties are
represented by the Fredlund and Xing soil-water characteristic curve fitting method and the
Modified Campbell estimation method for the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity portion of the
curve.
A flux section is placed along the bottom of the clay linear, which flows into the resulting the rest of
the numerical model can be calculated.
2.3.4
After the numerical model is run the amount of flow flux past section can be seen in the FlexPDE
solver. The hydraulic drop in head across the clay linear can be seen by plotting the head variable.
It can be seen in AcuMesh that the current design successfully dissipates a significant amount of
head in the numerical model. The resulting water table can be also plotted in the numerical model
and may be seen in the Figure 7.
Canals
Page 17 of 97
Figure 7 Plotting of the resulting head contours as well as the resulting water table
Earth Covers
Page 18 of 97
3 EARTH COVERS
3.1 LANDFILL SOIL COVER
Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
Soil_Cover
This particular model is designed to illustrate the modeling of the flow regime for a landfill. A
rainfall will be applied to the upper boundary of the model and the effectiveness of drains will be
examined in the model.
3.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to determine the amount of rainfall that permeates past the cover and
is eventually picked up by the drainage systems. This model is created to demonstrate a covered
landfill in which a constant rainfall is applied to the top boundary. Typically, a more comprehensive
type of seepage analysis would be performed with full climatic coupling implemented. This model is
simply an example to illustrate basic concepts. A steady-state model is used for analysis.
3.1.2
The geometry of the model consists of a landfill pit filled with waste material, which is covered with
a layer of Clay and Sand. The materials are represented by average properties that represent the
overall saturated or unsaturated characteristics of the material. The Sand layer can act as a
potentially a storage layer. It will also have a potential side effect of shutting off or minimizing
evaporation in this scenario.
It is assumed for the sake of this numerical model that there is a very dense material below, such
as rock or granite. As such the bottom of the model is represented as a no-flux boundary. On the
upper boundary of the cover a constant flux is placed which simulates a continuous rainfall
precipitation event.
The boundary conditions are assigned as follows. Water table for the surrounding area is placed on
the left and right side of the numerical model as a head boundary condition. In this case the
surrounding water table is assumed to be fairly consistent.
Figure 8 Geometry Soil Cover model
3.1.3
Earth Covers
Page 19 of 97
Material Properties
Once the geometry has been entered into the numerical model the material properties for the
various materials can be input. The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of the waste material,
clay liner, and base material are represented by typical values in the numerical model. It would be
possible to in this case, to extract reasonable values for materials in this model from the SoilVision
database.
3.1.4
Once the model has been analyzed, we can find out how much rainfall travels through the soil
cover by summing the reported flux values for Drain 1 and Drain 2. In Drain 1, it has a normal flow
rate of -2.5 x 10-7 m3/s and Drain 2 has a normal flow rate of 1.9 x 10-7 m3/s. Together, the total
amount of rainfall passing through the soil cover is 4.4 x 10-7 m3/s. A contour plot of the models
pore-water pressures can be seen below:
Figure 9 Results of the Soil Cover model
3.2 CHANGING ROOT ZONE IN RESIDENTIAL SLAB-ON-GROUND STUDY

Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
ChangingRootZone
The evaporative conditions between two residential buildings are examined as vegetation grows
over a period of 100 days. Development of the root zone, which acts as a sink, is considered as
both the depth of the roots and the top of the active root zone is established. This is a conceptual
model that is part of a larger study looking at the climate effects on the shrinkage and swelling of
soils under and around slab-on-ground foundations.
This model has a constant potential evaporation rate, constant temperature, and constant relative
humidity to isolate the effects of the transpiration variables including the leaf-area index (LAI), the
plant limiting factor (PLF), and the potential root uptake due to a root depth profile and root top
profile that change over time.
The speed at which a root zone develops and the characteristics of the root profile and how they
affect the suction profiles around the slab-on-grade foundations may affect decisions regarding the
type of vegetative cover and watering rates recommended for the site.
3.2.1
Purpose
The specific purpose of this model is to conceptually show the development of a root depth profile
and a root top profile. The area in between these profiles simulates the zone from which the
vegetation will extract water through transpiration.
Earth Covers
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The specific output requested is:

1.
The cumulative evaporative flow across the ground surface after 100 days,
2.
The change in suction at a point near the edge of the slab, and
3.
The ratio of bare soil evaporation to transpiration at 100 days.
3.2.2
The model geometry consists of a rectangular region 12m wide and 3m deep. The geometry of the
model is shown in Figure 10. An initial conditions head file is specified such that a linear head
profile is set starting near 0 at the ground surface and decreasing to 43.787m at the base,
creating unsaturated conditions throughout the model. A head of 43.787 is maintained at the
base of the model through a constant head boundary condition. The right and left portions of the
ground surface are set as no flow boundaries to simulate the slab foundations. The sides of the
model are also set as no flow.
A climate boundary condition is apply to the ground surface between the 2 slabs. This climate
boundary condition calculates actual evaporation by the Wilson Limiting Equation (1997) and
consists of a constant potential evaporation specified as 0.001 m/day, a temperature of 24oC, and
a relative humidity of the air equal to 50%. For transpiration, an excellent LAI and default PLF
are used. A triangular root distribution is specified with the root depth increasing from 0m at day 5
to 1m at day 100. Similarly, the root top increases in depth from 0m at day 20 to 0.2m at day 100.
Figure 10 Geometry of the Changing Root Zone Model
3.2.3
Material Properties
A single unsaturated material is applied to the entire model. A Fredlund & Xing SWCC fit is used to
describe the volumetric water content (vwc) changes with a saturated vwc of 0.45, af of 300kPa, nf
of 1.5, mf of 3000kPa, and residual suction of 3000kPa. A leong and Rahardjo Estimation describes
the permeability, with a saturated permeability of 8.64 x 10-4 m/day and p of 1.
3.2.4
As the model progresses observation of the Active Root Zone contour plot shows the emergence of
the roots at day 5 and subsequently the separation of the contours from the ground surface as the
Earth Covers
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top of the root zone takes affect at day 20. The final root zone at day 100 in terms of water
extracted in m3/day is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11 Active Root Zone Sink Profile at Day 100

The Cumulative Climate Summary graph indicates the net evaporation across the ground surface is
0.545m3, the bare surface actual evaporation is 0.206m3, and the cumulative transpiration is 0.173
m3. This results in a Actual Evaporation/Transpiration ratio of 1.2. The Climate Summary graph
demonstrate the separation of actual evaporation from potential evaporation, the point at which
actual evaporation equals transpiration in day 31, and the point where the actual evaporation
becomes 0 and transpiration takes over completely at day 68.
The plot of pore water pressure at (4.2,-0.2) shows a decrease from 45kPa at the start of the
model to 464kPa after 100 days.
3.3 GROWING ROOTS

Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
Growing_Roots
The Growing Roots example is designed to illustrate the effect of a root zone, which grows with
time. This allows the model to simulate the effect of root grown over a period o time.
Within the numerical model the growth of roots can be represented as an equation or as data.
Therefore, seasonally the numerical model may estimate changes in root growth.
3.3.1
Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to illustrate the effect of a changing root depth with time.
3.3.2
The geometry of this model is shown in following Figure 12. The overall model is 3m tall and the
upper boundary condition is a climate boundary condition and the lower boundary condition
consists of a unit gradient.
The effect of the bottom boundary condition is somewhat muted because of the short time span of
this numerical model. This numerical model is only run for thirty days and therefore the affect of
the bottom boundary condition on the numerical model is minimal.
Earth Covers
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Figure 12 Geometry of the Growing Roots model
3.3.3
Material Properties
The Silt is used in this model just a representation of a typical soil property. It has a saturated
hydraulic conductivity of 8.9 x 10-1 m/day. Its unsaturated properties are represented by the
Fredlund and Xing soil-water characteristic curve and the Modified Campbell method of
representing the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curve.
In this example the potential root uptake is entered as a function represented by data versus time.
The entries specific entry of the plant root uptake may be seen in the Figure 13.
Figure 13 Entry of root growth versus time
3.3.4
Earth Covers
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The results of the uptake function may be seen in the water uptake that is reported in the AcuMesh
software. It can be seen that the root depth increases over time. This increase is due to the growth
in the root depth and therefore the water uptake function.
Figure 14 Cumulative results of the GrowingRoots model
3.4 DAY1
Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
Day1
The Day1 series of numerical models are designed to illustrate various features which have been
implemented in the one-dimensional cover modeling set of models. For example transpiration is
represented in one model, runoff in ponding is represented in another one.
Precipitation may be represented as either parabolic or trapezoid representation. The PenmanWilson method of calculating evaporation is represented in one of the models in this group.
3.4.1
Purpose
The purpose of series of models is primarily is to represent the features of the climate coupling
available in SVFLUX.
3.4.2
The geometry of the model is shown in Figure 15. The column consists of a six-meter column of
soil with a climate boundary condition on the top and a no-flux boundary condition at the bottom.
Since the model is only run for one day there is enough storage to handle any particular type of
rainfall experienced during day. Therefore, a bottom boundary condition does not affect the results
in this case.
Earth Covers
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Figure 15 Example geometry of the Day1 series of models
3.4.3
Material Properties
In this case a grey silt material is used with a saturated hydraulic conductivity of 9 x 10-2 m/day.
The Fredlund and Xing method is used to represent the soil-water characteristic curve and the
Modified Campbell is used to represent the unsaturated portion of the curve. This is considered an
average soil property which may be experienced in the field.
3.4.4
Results of each numerical model may be examined both in the FLEXPDE solver and in the AcuMesh
software.
Typical results for this type of model are presented in terms of cumulative flows at the top and the
bottom of the soil columns. Such flows can be plotted under the Plot > Climate Data Summary
menu option as shown in Figure 16.
Earth Covers
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Figure 16 Graph results of the Day1_Runoff model
3.5 ONE DAY PRECIPITATION & EVAPORATION

Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
OneDayPrecipEvap
This model is intended to give a very simple example of creating a one-dimensional flow model.
The interest only is on determining and reporting the appropriate flows at the top boundary of the
model.
3.5.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate one-dimensional climate coupling for a numerical model.
3.5.2
The current numerical model has its base at a y- coordinate of zero. The top at a y-coordinate of
3.0. The bottom of the numerical model has a unit gradient boundary condition and the top has a
climate boundary condition. The geometry of the model may be seen in Figure 17.
Figure 17 Geometry of the numerical model
Earth Covers
3.5.3
Page 26 of 97
Material Properties
In this model a single Sandy Clay material is used which has a saturated hydraulic conductivity of
2.39 x 10-1 m/day and is represented in the unsaturated portions by the Fredlund and Xing soilwater characteristics curve fitting method and the Modified Campbell method of estimating
unsaturated hydraulic conductivity.
3.5.4
The cumulative results of the OneDay model can be seen in the following figures. It can be seen
that a parabolic application of the precipitation boundary condition is well represented. The model
ultimately performs well and solves the problem as posed.
Figure 18 Cumulative results of the 1-day flows
Figure 19 Instantaneous flow volumes
Earth Covers
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3.6 THIN COVER

Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
ThinCover
This model illustrates the ability of SVFLUX to handle very rigorous meshing restraints when
modeling a series of very thin covers. In this model a series of thin cover materials are placed on
top of a landfill type of material.
The model is designed to provide an example of the flow regime for this type of problem. In this
model runoff is not considered so 100% of the flow goes into the numerical model. This may be
verified through the use of the flux section at the base of the cover.
Ultimately this model may be run in transient state, but given the density of the nodes a fair
amount of time might be required in under to achieve a solution. Therefore, the intent of this
model is to prove the concept of modeling thin covers over a landfill-type material.
3.6.1
Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to illustrate the ability to model very fine features such as
thin soil layers in an earth cover setting.
3.6.2
The Silt material forms the base of this model. The landfill material is represented as high porosity
Till. The cover is made up of three separate layers of Coarse Sand, Sand and a Clay material. The
layering is illustrated in the following Figure 20.
Figure 20 Geometry of the ThinCover numerical model
Earth Covers
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Figure 21 Illustration of a zoomed view of the model layering
3.6.3
Material Properties
This soil cover is made up of layers of Coarse Sand, Sandy and Clay material. Silt forms the base of
the model. The high degree of porosity of waste materials is represented by a Till.
Cover material is ultimately represented by the Coarse Sand, which has a permeability of
864m/day and Fine Sand, which has a permeability of 86.4m/day and then the underlining Clay of
8.64 x 10-4 m/day. Ultimately in the long term, the flow through the cover will be prohibited
primarily by the clay layer at the base of the designed cover.
3.6.4
The numerical model may be solved with a high number of nodes. The established flow regime may
be seen in Figure 22. The model is run successfully and reasonable flow regime is established in
this case.
Figure 22 Results of the ThinCover numerical model
Earth Covers
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3.7 COVER
Project:
Model:
EarthCovers
Cover12in1D, Cover18in1D, Cover24in1D, Cover24in1D_DailyIntensity
It is often important to model the flow amount that happens through a designed earth cover. The
following three models examine at the effects of different sizes of covers on the computed recharge
or percolation values.
In this case it should be noted that we define recharge (or percolation) as flow which passes the
cover system and does not get pulled back up by the process of evaporation.
3.7.1
Purpose
The purpose of these models is to evaluate the performance of different thickness of covers. In
particular the amount of permanent long-term vertical flow, which makes it past the cover is
evaluated in light of performance of the cover. The model Cover24in1D_DailyIntensity is the same
as Cover24in1D except that the Daily precipitation intensity correction is used instead of the Global
precipitation intensity correction to demonstrate the use of this option.
3.7.2
The geometry for the three different cover models is shown in the following figures. The figures
consist of a 12, 18, and a 24 cover overlying the same fine heap material.
Figure 23 Cover 12
Figure 24 Cover 18
Figure 25 Cover 24
The top boundary conditions on all the models are represented by the same climate data. Climate
data exists for all models for a minimum of time of five days. In this case the model is only run to
five days for the purposes of illustration, so that the user can get an idea of how the model
functions without having to wait a significant amount of time for model results.
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It is recognized that most cover model should be run a minimum time period of approximately one
year, and possibly five, ten, fifty or even a hundred years. The bottom boundary condition on the
attached models is fixed at an unsaturated head expression.
In other words this boundary condition can be interpreted as forcing the bottom of these models to
remain unsaturated. This type of boundary condition set-up is typically performed if the modeling is
done conjunction with field measurements.
It should be noted that there is significant debate in research literature as far as the proper
representative of bottom boundary condition. The user is encouraged to exam the use of unit
gradient boundary conditions, as well as other variations of head boundary conditions for
successful cover modeling. A full discussion of appropriate boundary conditions is considered
outside of the scope of this manual.
3.7.3
Material properties
The heap materials for all models are represented by hydraulic properties representatives for heap
material. The fines for the cover materials are all of consistent porosity and hydraulic conductivity.
3.7.4
The results of the one-dimensional models are presented in terms of total cumulative fluxes which
proceed past the top boundary condition. It is also desired in this case to determine the total flow
which passes beneath the cover in each of these scenarios. In another words, what is the impact of
increasing the cover thickness on the amount of percolation past the base of the covers.
The amount of flow that goes past the cover system can be obtained by placing a flux section at
the base of the cover. The results of the current models are shown in Figure 26. The figure may be
seen under the Plot > Climate Summary menu option.
It should be noted that the user may also report pore-water pressures and saturation levels at
various points throughout the numerical model. This is illustrated in the following graphs.
It should be noted that runoff is not accounted for in the attached models. This is because the
rainfall events are not high enough intensities to get close to runoff conditions.
It should be further noted to display the results of the pore-water pressures at certain points, the
data must be selected to write to a text file in the Plot Properties dialog.
It can be seen that there is little variance in the short time frame between the various cover
scenarios. More significant variance is expected in the longer term under which this model would
typically be run.
Earth Covers
Figure 26 Flux 2 from the 24-inch cover model
Figure 27 Example of the cumulative results from the software
Figure 28 Cumulative flow past the 18-inch cover
Page 31 of 97
Earth Covers
Figure 29 Cumulative flow past the 12-inch cover
Page 32 of 97
Earth Dams
Page 33 of 97
4 EARTH DAMS
4.1 CLASSIC EARTH FILL DAM
Project:
Model:
EarthDams
Earth_Fill_Dam, T_Earth_Fill_Dam
The earth fill dam example is the classic numerical model which is often solved in numerical
modeling classes in Universities. The model is used to assess the effectiveness of a clay core in
dissipating the energy of water. The effectiveness of a downstream filter is also examined in order
to avoid possible piping failures. If the downstream filter operates properly there will be no outflow
of water on the downstream face of the dam.
Model Earth_Fill_Dam examines the steady-state scenario and is described in this example.
T_Earth_Fill_Dam verifies a transient model, where the upstream boundary condition remains
constant against the steady-sate model.
4.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of this example is to examine the flow regime through an earth dam in order to
achieve the following objectives:
1.
It is desired that the energy in the water head must be reduced through the use of the
clay core in the dam.
2.
It is desired that the water table must not daylight on the down-stream side of the earth
dam.
In order to keep the water table from day lighting on the down stream on the earth dam a filter is
placed at the base of the dam, which provides a drain for the water. This model is also a classic
illustration of the potential for unsaturated flow over the clay core.
4.1.2
The geometry of this model is created using three separate regions in the numerical model. These
three regions are named the dam region, the core region, and the filter region. It should be noted
there are several ways to input the core region. Firstly, it could be an exclusion of the dam region.
Secondly, it could also be drawn such that the dam region goes up and around the clay core. In
this example we will exclude the core material from the earth dam material.
Boundary conditions may be applied to the numerical model. A head boundary condition can be
applied on the upstream side of the earth dam. In this case we assume the upstream water
boundary conditions are constant with time.
As such, this allows the current numerical model to be analyzed as a steady-state numerical model.
A head boundary condition is placed at the base of the filter material on the downstream side of
the earth dam. This allows free drainage of the water through the earth dam. A flux section is also
placed such that the volume of flow through the earth dam can be calculated.
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Page 34 of 97
Figure 30 Geometry of the Earth Fill Dam model
4.1.3
Material Properties
The material properties in this numerical model are entered such that the material in the dam
region is made up a Till type of material with a uniform grain-size distribution. The core material
is made up of dense clay with a very low hydraulic conductivity. The filter material consists of a
sandy gravel type of material with a high conductivity.
4.1.4
Once the model is analyzed the interest is in the amount of flux over the top of the clay core, the
total flow through the earth dam, and the location of the phreatic surface. The flow up over the
earth core may be visualized by plotting flow vectors in the dam region. The flow vectors show the
water flow up over the earth core and through the unsaturated zone (Figure 31).
Figure 31 Vectors showing the concentration of high fluxes

case, the flow through Flux 1 is 2.0 x 10-8 m3/s, the flow through Flux 2 is 7.7 x 10-9 m3/s, and the
flow through Flux 3 is 1.4 x 10-8 m3/s.
The location of the phreatic surface may be seen by plotting pore-water pressures. The zero
pressure line can be seen to go to decrease deeply through the core and subsequently exist at the
point of the filter. This is desirable, as the water table does not approach the downside of the earth
dam.
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Figure 32 Pore-water pressure contours through the earth dam
4.2 RAPID RESERVOIR DRAW-DOWN

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
T_Earth_Fill_Dam_RDD
In this example, the rapid draw-down of a reservoir is examined. The reservoir creates abnormally
high pore-water pressures in an earth fill dam, and subsequently creates a slope stability failure
hazard. Proper calculation of upstream pore-water pressures is therefore important.
4.2.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to determine the pore-water distributions in the earth dam during
rapid draw-down conditions.
4.2.2
The geometry used in this numerical model is the same as the geometry used for the other earth
filled dam example model. The initial head specified is the same as the other steady-state example
as well.
The preliminary difference in this new numerical model is the head boundary condition is drawndown very rapidly over the duration of the numerical model. The pore-water pressures can be
examined along the upstream side of the earth dam at any point in time.
Figure 33 Example geometry of the T_Earth_Fill_DamRDD model
4.2.3
Earth Dams
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Material Properties
The same material properties are used in this numerical model as were used in the previous Earth
Dam numerical model.
4.2.4
Once the model is run, pore-water pressures can be seen on the up-stream side of the earth dam.
Subsequently, this model can be put into a slope stability analysis and the resulting factors of
safety at any given step can be calculated. The results of the pore-water pressures can be seen
below:
Figure 34 Initial Pore-Water Pressures in T_Earth_Fill_DamRDD
Figure 35 Final Pore-Water Pressures in T_Earth_Fill_DamRDD
4.3 FLOW BENEATH EARTH DAM

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
EarthDamLow
This particular numerical model must illustrate the use of seepage software to determine the
relative flux which might occur through as compared to underneath an earth dam.
4.3.1
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Page 37 of 97
Purpose
The end user may want to determine the amount of flow which may pass through an earth dam as
opposed to underneath an earth dam. It is costly to excavate too deeply into highly impermeable
material beneath an earth dam.
The earth dam may therefore then built on materials that are of low permeability. Materials
beneath earth dams are rarely completely impermeable and therefore flow beneath such a
structure is of importance.
4.3.2
The geometry of this numerical model may be set up such that there is an upstream and
downstream type of material. The clay core is placed in the center of the dam as a highly dense
and relatively impermeable layer and two subsequent layers are placed underneath the earth dam
to represent the material of the original landscape.
The boundary conditions assigned to the numerical model are placed on the upstream and
downstream sides of the earth dam as well as the far left and right side of the numerical model.
And it is assumed that a head boundary condition adequately represents the upstream condition for
this numerical model. It is also assumed the head boundary condition does not change with time
and therefore the scenario may be modeled with a steady-state analysis.
A head boundary condition is placed on the upstream part of the earth dam. The downstream
boundary condition is placed on the far right hand side of the numerical model, which represents
water table readings obtained in the field. A flux section is placed in the model in order to integrate
the total amount of flow through the model.
Figure 36 Example geometry of Earth Dam Low
4.3.3
Material Properties
The material properties entered into the current numerical model are such that the earth-fill
material is of average permeability.
The clay core has a very low permeability and illustrates the dense or the packed-clay core of the
earth dam. The hydraulic properties of the two material layers on the original ground surface would
be determined based on laboratory measured material properties. Since the two material layers
beneath the earth dam will remain predominately saturated during the analysis, it is not critical to
have unsaturated material properties for these two soils.
Earth Dams
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It is reasonable, however, to obtain unsaturated material properties for the earth dam and clay
core materials as the levels of saturation in both of these materials are unknown prior to running
the model.
4.3.4
case, the flow through Flux 1 is 1.3 x 10-3 m3/s. The distribution of pore-water pressures and the
water table may be seen in the Figure 37.
Figure 37
4.4 EARTH DAM CUTOFF

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
EarthDamCutoffFlow
One of the types of analysis that can be done is to examine the use of a cutoff wall created by
injecting grout underneath the earth dam. This is often performed if the material beneath the
location of an earth filled dam is considered to be very porous, or fissured and therefore the
hydraulic conductivity of the sub layer must be decreased.
Such a scenario can be modeled in the software and this example is designed to illustrate how such
a scenario might be solved using SVFLUX.
4.4.1
Purpose
The purpose of this example is to illustrate the calculation of the amount of flow past a grouted
cutoff wall.
4.4.2
The model is analyzed as a steady-state model and the head boundary conditions on the upstream
side of the earth dam are considered to remain constant.
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Figure 38 Geometry of Earth Dam Cut Off Flow model
4.4.3
Material Properties
The cutoff material is assigned hydraulic conductivity of concrete roughly 3.28 x 10-12 ft/s.
4.4.4
Once the model has run the resulting flow regime can be analyzed. It is also simple to extend or
shorten the length of the cut off and examines the resulting impact on the flow regime.
Figure 39 Results of the Flow Regime of the Earth Dam Cut Off model
case, the flow through Flux 1 is 2.6 x 10-4 ft3/s, and the flow through Flux 2 is 6.0 x 10-3 ft3/s. The
total flow through the dam is 6.2 x 10-3 ft3/s.
4.5 COMPLEX EARTH DAM

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
ComplexDam
Earth Dams
Page 40 of 97
This model is created in the SVFLUX software and the geometry was digitized and imported from
an AutoCAD DXF file.
4.5.1
Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to illustrate the ability of SVFLUX to automatically to create
a mesh and analyze a very detailed earth dam cross-section. A complex layering is introduced in
this particular example. It would impossible to analyze such a model with a manually generated
mesh.
This model, however, is straight-forward to solve by using the SVFLUX software. The second
purpose of this model is to determine the total flow through the earth dam. The third purpose is to
determine the location of maximum gradients.
4.5.2
Once the geometry has been successfully entered the boundary conditions may be specified. In this
case, a head boundary condition is placed on the up streamside of the earth dam. The review
boundary condition is placed on the downstream side of the earth dam because the exit point of
the water is not exactly known.
The user may then vary the material properties to determine the resulting change in the location of
the downstream water table or exit point of the numerical model. It is also possible to place a flux
section on the earth dam at several places in order to determine the overall fluxes through the
earth dam.
Figure 40 Geometry of the Complex Dam model
4.5.3
Material Properties
The material properties for this earth dam are entered as a number of different materials, which
adequately represent the material layers used in the construction process.
While it is not recommended that this type of analysis to be performed without unsaturated
material properties, specifying only saturated properties provides a good initial guess at the
solution. Only saturated material properties are utilized in this model.
4.5.4
Earth Dams
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The first purpose of this model was to illustrate the ability of SVFLUX to automatically to create a
mesh and analyze a very detailed earth dam cross-section. A mesh plot of the model solution is
presented below.
Figure 41 Mesh Plot of the Complex Dam model

One desired output from this numerical model is the location of the phreatic surface as well as the
location of any critical gradients that which may occur in this cross-section, the overall flux to the
earth dam is important as well as determining the potential day-lighting location of a potential
phreatic surface.
An indication of these types of output can be obtained by using the Plot Manager. In the Plot
Manager, contour plots of pore-water pressures and heads may be created to determine the energy
loss through the earth dam and the location of phreatic surface. The pore-water pressure results
can be seen in the following ACUMESH figure:
Figure 42 Pore-water pressures results of the Complex Dam model

A flux section can be placed across the earth dam and the flux value integrated across the entire
the earth dam. A plot of gradients can be also created in the Plot Manager and resulting output can
be viewed in the either finite element solver or professional quality reports can be created in the
ACUMESH software. The flow across the Flux 1 flux section is 9.4 x 10-5 m3/s.
4.6 DAM IN VALLEY SIMPLE

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
DamInValley07
Earth Dams
Page 42 of 97
This model is attended to illustrate the application of the software to a situation in which an earth
dam is placed in a valley. It is attended to be a fairly simple example with a homogenous dam
material.
4.6.1
Purpose
Although this is a relatively simple model conceptually the numerical modeling challenges with this
model design are significant. Typically problems include how to pinch out layers of the model on
the valley sidewalls.
Although this model contains straight-forward known points on all the dam valley walls, it is still a
useful model to determine the proper methodology for designing this type of problem. We will
place a flux section across the downstream side of the dam and examine the amount of flow
through the dam.
4.6.2
Figure 43 Example geometry of the Dam In Valley Simple

The model geometry is comprised of three primary layers in this case. The bottom layer is flat and
is selected to be far enough away from the model such that it does not unduly influence the model
parameters. A second surface represents the ground surface of the valley without any dam
structure in it. It is comprised of two upper zones and the valley sidewalls and the valley
basement. The third surface represents the top of the earth dam and it crosses the valley topology
surface at certain intersections points.
The primarily difficultly with this model is determining the points at which there is intersections
between surfaces two and three. The topology and the earth dam itself. In this case the
intersection points are determined, using a geometry tool called, find regions. With this tool, the
intersection points between two surfaces could be found in the numerical model and converted to a
region.
It is ideal in a three-dimensional numerical model that a region can be cut through a surface
exactly at the intersection point between the two surfaces. The second region is selected as the
entire geometry extents. Therefore, the current model is comprised of three surfaces and two
Earth Dams
Page 43 of 97
regions. The first region is the entire numerical model, and is rectangular in shape. The second
region represents the earth dam, and the intersection between surfaces two and three.
The earth dam can be also be limited to the first or the second layer such that the properties of the
earth dam do not extent down in below the topology of the soil. This may be accomplished by
double-clicking on the Earth Dam region and selecting the Limited Region button, and excluding
layer one from the earth dam region. This will cause the numerical model to ignore the extension
of the earth dam into the layers below the original valley topology.
The boundary conditions for the earth dam are a water table, which is placed on the upper
upstream side of the earth dam. The earth dam region is selected and surface boundary conditions
may be applied to the upstream side of the earth dam. These upstream head boundary conditions
comprise an infinite source, which represents a reservoir.
Once the model is created the series of head and pore-water plots may be created under the Plot
Manager form the default plots provide a reasonable illustration of the heads and pore-water
pressure water contours throughout the earth dam. The gradients may be plotted at any twodimensional slice through the earth dam. Three-dimensional plots may be visualized by selecting
AcuMesh output in the output manager.
4.6.3
Material Properties
Typical values for Till and earth dam fill were used for the model.
4.6.4
This example however, straight forward illustrates key concepts in the creation of an earth dam
model, which are useful for more complex applications of this theory. Complex issues such as
pinching out and limiting regions to certain layers are illustrated with this numerical model.
Also illustrated is the application of boundary conditions to surfaces. However, simple this model
forms the basis for the creation of much more complicated earth dam numerical models.
case, the flow through Flux 1 is 2.8 x 10-3 m3/day.
The below figure displays the contour plot for the analyzed model:
Figure 44 Contours of pore-water pressure for the final solved model
Earth Dams
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4.7 MICA DAM 3D

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
Mica Dam 3D
The Mica Dam earth model is a model made from the real 3D world earth dam case. The model is
designed to illustrate the use of the SVFLUX to set and up solve the geometry associated with this
type of real world problem.
4.7.1
Purpose
The purpose of the model is to illustrate the solution of a real world three-dimensional earth dam
model by the software.
4.7.2
The approximate three-dimensional view of the numerical model may be seen in the following
figure. The mica earth dam in actual reality is created using a clay core and granularly outside
material. Since this is a flow model there is no need to model the gravel core, as its conductivity is
multiple orders of magnitude more conductive then the clay core.
Almost all the head loss occurs through the clay core of the earth dam. Therefore, only the clay in
the core of the dam is included in the numerical model. A certain amount upstream and
downstream is created using the numerical model such that the boundary conditions do not
influence the model results.
The numerical model is created using a series of four surfaces. The top and the bottom surfaces of
the valley are represented in the numerical model firstly. Then subsequent surfaces, which
represent the top and the bottom of the clay core, are entered into the numerical model.
The results in several surfaces cutting through the topology of the dam valley and in order to
successful create the clay core. It should be noted that there is extensive use of the setting of
minimum evaluations in order to cause the portions of the clay core, which fall beneath the valley
to not be included in the numerical model.
Earth Dams
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Figure 45 Example geometry for the Mica Dam 3D
4.7.3
Material Properties
Only two material properties are represented in this case and that is of the bedrock and the clay
core. The bedrock has measured permeability of 2.83 x 10-7 ft/day. The clay core has a hydraulic
conductivity of 2.83 x 104 ft/day. Unsaturated properties are not input in this model as they are
not currently available in the publications used to create this model.
4.7.4
The resulting model shows the dissipation of head through the sharp contours, which indicate that
proper energy is being dissipated calculations of this problem.
The heads are applied to the surfaces of the clay core and the sidewalls of the valley in the
upstream of this model. The head drops through the clay core can therefore to be ascertained.
Figure 46 Results of the MicaDam3D example model
4.8 MICA DAM 2D

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
Mica Dam 2D
This is another example of an earth dam model using the SVFLUX software. The model is
composed of multiple soils regions and is based on a real world situation. The dam contains overall
a clay core, which dissipates of majority of the heads.
4.8.1
Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to examine the dissipation of the heads throughout the clay
core, also to check whether or not flow will occur beneath the dam in the silt layer.
4.8.2
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The geometry of the model may be seen in the following figure. It can be seen that the dam is built
over a porous Silty material and that a cutoff full of grouted concrete had to be created beneath
the clay core to ensure that the dam did not experience excessive seepage.
The numerical model can test the theory of how well this model will theoretic perform given that
the grouting was properly performed. The boundary conditions are primarily composed of the head
boundary conditions on the upstream side of the dam. A review boundary condition is placed on
the downstream side of the dam to determine the reasonable exist point of the water flow.
Figure 47 Geometry of Mica Dam 2D model
4.8.3
Material Properties
There are a number of materials which comprise this model. Unsaturated properties are not
represented in this model simply because they are not available and have not been provided to the
authors of this model. Approximate soil-water characteristic curves are used for each of the
materials in this model.
4.8.4
The resulting figures show the dissipation of the heads throughout the numerical model. These
results indicate a reasonable distribution of the head throughout the earth dam. A flux section may
be examined to find out overall flow through the earth dam. The results of the flux section may be
seen in the FlexPDE reporting.
Figure 48 Results
Earth Dams
Page 47 of 97
4.9 DAM IN VALLEY 07

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
DamInValley07
The DamInValley07 model is similar to the Dam in Valley Simple model with the exception that
more layers are included in this model. The ability to represent multiple complex structures in the
3D model is illustrated with this example model.
4.9.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate the creation of complex dam in valley models, which can
be solved in three-dimensions. The purpose of this model is to determine the change in the water
table as it passes through the earth dam as well as identifies zones of high gradients in the earth
dam.
4.9.2
The geometry of the model is illustrated in Figure 49. The geometry of the problem is comprised of
multiple core layers, which may be illustrated through a side view of the three-dimensional model.
These core layers transect the valley sidewalls at multiple locations and created a fairly complex
scenario in which the geometry is difficult to mesh. Boundary conditions are applied to the surface
of the upstream side of the dam as well as the sidewalls of the valley in this case. The flow through
the earth dam and the core layers is therefore the intent of computation process.
Figure 49 Example of the geometry of the Complex Earth Dam
Earth Dams
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Figure 50 Side view of the core layers
4.9.3
Material Properties
Two separate material properties are included in this numerical model. First is the Till, which is
used to represent the original ground material present prior to building of the dam.
The dam fill material is used to represent the actual dam material in this case. Unsaturated soil
properties are not included in this numerical model in order to obtain faster run times for the
purposes of illustration.
4.9.4
The results of this computation may be seen in the Figure 51.
Figure 51 x-gradients in the numerical model

A number of cross-sections may also be seen of the plotting of heads and pore-water pressures at
various points in the earth dam in the solver visualization. In AcuMesh specific change in the porewater pressures and heads across earth dam may be noted. It may also be adventitious in this
Earth Dams
Page 49 of 97
model to perform value blanking such that the user can see inside the numerical model (Figure
52).
Figure 52 Gradients from a different angle with value-blanking enabled
4.10 PRESSURES IN DAM

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
PRESSURES_IN_DAM
This is an example model that illustrates the use of a sand filter to dissipate heads in the numerical
model. The dam is composed primarily of fairly impermeability clay with shale beneath it. A sand
filter is then placed in the center of the dam to dissipate any excess pore-water pressures which
may accumulate.
4.10.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is to check on whether that the sand filter is effective in dissipating of
excess pore-water pressures.
4.10.2 Geometry and Boundary Conditions

The model is primarily composed of three different layers. Clay comprises the bulk of earth dam
material. The earth dam is built over a shale material that is highly permeable. A sand filter then
comprises the resulting thin layer internally in the dam of which the intent is to dissipate porewater pressures.
The head boundary conditions are placed in the upstream side of the model in order to represent
reasonable conditions. Head boundary conditions are also noted on the down-stream side beneath
the sand filter.
Earth Dams
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Figure 53 Geometry of the PRESSURES_IN_DAM Model
4.10.3 Material Properties

The material properties for the model are comprised of the Clay, Sand and the Shale Layer. Only
the sand contains unsaturated soil properties due to the lack of data. The rest all soil properties are
represented by the Fredlund and Xing method of fitting the soil-water characteristic curve.
4.10.4 Results and Discussions

The results of the analysis show the pore-water pressures are effectively dissipated down through
the sand filter in the earth dam. This is illustrated in the Figure 54.
Figure 54 Results
4.11 EARTH FILL DAM STO 100

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
EarthFillDamSto100
This numerical model is very similar to the earth fill dam numerical model with the difference being
that the model is set up to highlight the statistic abilities of the software to solve particular
numerical modeling type of problems. The software may be set up to do multiple runs while
varying the material properties in the model.
In this case the steepness of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function is varied in the silt
loam material and the resulting flow up over top of the clay core is examined. The intent is to
perform sensitive analysis on how unsaturated soil properties affect the resulting flow regime.
Earth Dams
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4.11.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is to determine the effect of steepness of the unsaturated hydraulic
conductivity function on flow through the earth dam.

The head boundary condition is placed on the upstream left most side of the model. A zero head
boundary condition is also placed on the base of the filter material on the downstream side of the
dam such that any flow that encounters the filter is directed out the model.
It is possible for water to flow up over through the water table and go back down into the water
table through the unsaturated zone. This concept has been proven in research literature. However,
this affect is highly depended upon the actual unsaturated soil properties entered into the
numerical model.
Therefore, the unsaturated properties are varied through a wide range with this numerical model
and the resulting impact on the flux section above the clay core is examined and plotted. In
particular the geometry examined may be seen in the Figure 55.
Figure 55 Geometry of Earth Fill Dam Sto100

The material properties are the same as the earth fill dam model and are not varied. Material
Properties of the Silt Loam are varied in that the Modified Campbell p parameter is varied through
a wide range. It is assumed that the p parameter has a mean value of 5.0 and a standard deviation
of 2.0.
A Monte Carlo normal distribution is then used to generate 200 random values of this parameter.
The parameter values are then sorted from lowest to highest and are run in the numerical model
with the flux section reporting the changes in flow as the unsaturated soil properties change.

The results may be presented in terms of flux section 3 versus time.
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Figure 56 Typical results of pore-water pressure in one of the individual analysis
Figure 57 Results of the varying unsaturated soil properties on the flow through the unsaturated zone
4.12 EARTH DAM TOE

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
Earth DamToe
The Earth Dam Toe model creates a simple two-region model in which there is a large filter at the
downstream toe of the earth dam.
4.12.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is to determine the location of the resulting water table design of the
downstream filter.

A head boundary condition is applied to the upstream side of the earth dam model. A downstream
head boundary condition is applied to this model after the filter material.
Earth Dams
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Figure 58 Geometry of EarthDamToe model

Only two average material properties are supplied with this numerical model. A Silt and a sand
material. The sand represents the filter material in this numerical model.

The pore-water pressures distribution and the resulting water table may be seen in Figure 59. It
can be seen that this current design prevents the daylighting of the water table on the downstream
side which can ultimately lead to a piping failure.
Figure 59 Results of EarthDamToe example model
4.13 CUTOFF
Project:
Model:
EarthDams
CutOff
The intent of this numerical model is to determine the proper location of flow lines given that there
is a cutoff wall placed beneath a weir. This model is a classic numerical model that has been
traditionally solved with the use of flow lines and manual construction means. A number of
solutions to this model are available using flow nets.
4.13.1 Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to illustrate the use of SVFLUX software to solve this classic
problem.
Earth Dams
Page 54 of 97

The only geometry that need be entered the material beneath the weir structure as well as the
cutoff wall. In this case the cutoff wall is represented by a small error gap and in the finite element
mesh, which causes zero flux through the air gap.
Figure 60 Geometry of the CutOff model

The introduction of this air gap forces water down under the cutoff wall and around the cutoff wall.
The head boundary conditions are used both in the upstream and downstream side of the weir with
the upstream side having a higher head boundary condition than the lower side.

A Silt type of material with a conductivity of 1 x 107 m/s is used to represent the material. Since
the material is entirely saturated the use of unsaturated soil properties for this model is
meaningless.

The resulting model complete with flow lines may be seen in the Figure 61. It can be seen from
these results when they are compared to classic solutions that the results compare very closely.
It can also be seen that the zone of high gradients around the bottom of the cutoff wall have
received extra attention from the meshing routine and the additional mesh density allows for
increased accuracy in representation of the solution.
Earth Dams
Page 55 of 97
Figure 61 Results
4.14 CLAY DAM NOTCHED SIMPLE

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
ClayDamNotchedSimple
This particular numerical model is a simple earth dam model in which clay fill material is placed
over a foundation material. The foundation material is notched such that the fill material goes
below the foundation in the attempt of cutting off flow underneath the earth dam.
4.14.1 Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to determine the flow regime through the numerical model
and insure that the daylighting of the water table does not happen on the downstream side of the
earth dam.

Geometry of this model may be seen in Figure 62.
Figure 62 Geometry of the ClayDamNotchedSimple model

The head boundary condition is placed on the upstream side of the numerical model and the review
boundary condition is placed on the downstream side such that the pore-water pressures can be
computed. A background head boundary condition is placed at the far left and right sides of the
numerical model.

The dam fill is represented by a Till material of saturated hydraulic conductivity equal to 1 x 104
m/s. The dam sits over a dense sand material where the saturated hydraulic conductivity is 1 x 103
m/s.
It should be noted that this would not be an ideal site in which to build an earth dam. This model is
created only for the purposes of illustration.
Earth Dams
Page 56 of 97

The established flow regime may be seen in the following Figure 63. It can be seen that the greater
portion of flow in this case is beneath the earth dam.
Figure 63 Results
4.15 EARTH DAM WITH TAILINGS PIT

Project:
Model:
Earth Dams
EarthDamPit
This model illustrates the use of surface planes to create the geometry of an earth dam with a
tailings pit.
4.15.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is simply to demonstrate surfaces defined in terms of planes.

The geometry consists of a dam, a tailings pit, and banks surrounding the tailings pit. Three
surfaces are defined. Surfaces 1 and 2 are constant and define the bottom and top of the model,
respectively. Surface 2 is defined entirely by planes, i.e., the dam, the tailings pit, and the
surrounding banks are all defined by plane surfaces. Note that along the sides of the tailings pit the
quadrilateral regions are split into two triangles. This is required to properly model the slope of the
surrounding banks. A minimum of two planes, at slightly different angles, is required to form the
slope of the bank.
The boundary conditions consist of a head boundary condition and a climate boundary condition. A
head of 1m is applied to the downstream side of the dam. A precipitation climate boundary
condition of 5 mm/day is applied to the tailings pit.
Earth Dams
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Figure 64 Geometry of the Earth Dam and Tailings Pit model

The material properties are assigned for the dam, tailings, and surrounding banks. The clay dam is
permeability of 1 x 10-2 m/day, the tailings pit has a permeability of 7 x 10-1 m/day, and the
surrounding banks have a permeability of 8 x 10-3 m/day.

Once the model is analyzed the user can plot pore-water pressure and flow vectors. This will allow
the user to see the location of the water table. An example of resulting pore of water pressures
generated by this particular model is shown in Figure 65. The right surrounding bank has been
hidden to display the planes that form the tailings pit.
Earth Dams
Page 58 of 97
Figure 65 Result of Earth Dam Pit model
4.16 EARTH DAM IN IRREGULAR VALLEY

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
IrregularEarthDam
It is often difficult to model the actual conditions with an earth dam-type of model. The placement
of earth dams often does not come at regular or easy-to-model locations within a valley. This
particular earth dam model is designed to show the application of the SVFlux new planar surfaces
feature to the modeling of highly irregular earth dam models. In this model the earth dam is placed
at an elbow in the valley. This makes the representation of the earth dam geometry much more
complex as there are multiple pinch-out zones throughout the model. These pinch-out zones are
handled with the planar surfaces feature in which each surface can be represented as a series of
interlocking planes.
A head is placed on the upstream side of the earth dam and results in the flow vectors through the
dam being able to be computed. Flow through the valley material can also be computed.
4.16.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is to demonstrate the use of the planar geometry feature to create earth
dam models which are highly irregular. The solution will show the proper flow vectors in a model
with highly irregular geometry.

The geometry for this model consists of two primary objects, i) the valley material and ii) the earth
dam material. The valley floor is represented as a surface and the top of the earth dam is
represented as a separate surface. The primary work with this model is to ensure that the top of
Earth Dams
Page 59 of 97
the earth dam properly intersects with the valley floor. This intersection is handled in an exact
manner with the planar surface geometry.
The upstream boundary conditions are applied as head conditions to each side of the valley and to
the upstream surface of the earth dam. In this case the model represents a constant water table
elevation on the upstream side of the earth dam.
In this model a constant head is applied to the downstream side of the earth dam.
Figure 66 Geometry of the irregular earth dam model

Typical material properties were selected for the model with the valley being less permeable than
the earth dam material. There is approximately one order of magnitude in the saturated hydraulic
conductivity between the earth dam and the valley material.

It can be seen that a reasonable mesh is created for the numerical model. This is important
because if small zones of dense grid are encountered then the model run-times will be significantly
increased. The mesh for the model may be seen in Figure 67.
Earth Dams
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Figure 67 Mesh utilized for the solution of the irregular earth dam model
Once the irregular earth dam model is analyzed the user can plot pore-water pressure and flow
vectors. This will allow the user to see the location of the water table both through the earth dam
and through the outside material. The results of the flow analysis are reasonable and demonstrate
successful solution of this numerical model. As a further step, the user could place flux sections
through either the earth dam or the surrounding valley slopes to determine the relative flows
through each region.
Earth Dams
Page 61 of 97
Figure 68 Result of irregular earth dam model
4.17 DRAINAGE BLANKET

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket and EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket
This example demonstrates the use of SVFLUX in analyzing the effect of drainage blankets on a
dam. This is a basic earth dam of homogenous construction and both models are intended to
represent the same dam, one with and one without a drainage blanket. The water table line and
the flow vectors leaving the downstream edge of the dam are evaluated in this example.
It is assumed in this example that water is being maintained at a consistent level for the duration
of the example on the upstream part of the dam. A steady-state numerical model is adequate for
this type of example. EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket represents the dam without a drainage
blanket and EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket represents the same dam with the inclusion of a
blanket.
4.17.1 Purpose
The purpose of this model is to show the potential instability of a homogenous dam due to piping
represented by EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket and how it can be improved by adding a drainage
blanket, as shown in EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket.
Earth Dams
Page 62 of 97

The models are set up with the geometry shown below in Figure 69 and Figure 70. The models use
Head Expression boundary conditions.
A head expression boundary condition is assigned on the upstream side of the dam to represent
the water level contained by the dam. A lower head expression is applied to the downstream side
of the dam in EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket. The EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket model contains
a flux section to monitor the outflow through the filter.
Figure 69 Earth dam with no drainage blanket
Figure 70 Earth dam with drainage blanket
Earth Dams
Page 63 of 97

The dam silt has been given a hydraulic conductivity of 8.64 x 10-3 m/day and has been created as
an unsaturated material. The drainage blanket has been set up as unsaturated sand with a
hydraulic conductivity of 8.64 m/day. The importance is that the blanket has a higher conductivity,
allowing water to drain from the dam into the drainage blanket.
When the model is run you should evaluate plots of head, pore-water pressures, fluxes and
volumetric water content. These plots show the pressure, movement and water content in the
dam.

Once solved, viewing the fluxes, volumetric water content, and pressure outputs for
EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket we can see that the entire dam has a high water content, the water
table is high and the flux out of the downstream side could potentially be strong enough to cause
piping (
Figure 71).
When looking at the results of EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket the dam shows a water table
leading almost directly to the edge of the drainage blanket as well as highly reduced pressure and
flux on the downstream edge of the dam (
Figure 72).
When comparing the two we see a much steeper water table as well as a lower water content and
lesser likelihood of piping issues.
Figure 71 EarthDam_NoDrainageBlanket Results
Earth Dams
Page 64 of 97
Figure 72 EarthDam_WithDrainageBlanket Results
4.18 THIN SLOPING CORE DAM

Project:
Model:
EarthDams
ThinSlopingCoreDam
The example demonstrates the use of SVFLUX in analyzing the situation of steady-state seepage
through a thin sloping core dam. This dam contains a sloping core extended from the center along
the bottom to the right end of the dam. A filter is also set up underneath the right end at the
bottom.
4.18.1 Purpose
The purpose of the model is to monitor the effectiveness of the drainage core.

The model is set up with the geometry shown below and the material regions are entered. There
are three head boundary conditions in this model. A 27 meter head boundary condition is applied
along the left sidewall. A 10 meter head boundary condition is assigned along the right sidewall, as
well as the right side of the filter.
Earth Dams
Page 65 of 97
Figure 73 Example Geometry of the ThinSlopingCoreDam

Two kinds of materials are applied to this model. The external layer contains a silt with a saturated
volumetric water content value equal to 0.367. Its saturated hydraulic conductivity is 0.00864
m/day. The core and the filter are constructed with sand with a saturated volumetric water content
property of 0.4 and a hydraulic conductivity property of 8.63 m/day.

Once the model is solved, the water flow through the dam is able to be viewed in AcuMesh. The
following figure demonstrates the core behaves as intended and effectively drains water away from
the downstream face.
Earth Dams
Figure 74 Contour plots for the ThinSlopingCoreDam example model
Page 66 of 97
3D Meshing
Page 67 of 97
5 3D MESHING
5.1 PINCH TWO WAY
Project:
Model:
3DMeshing
Pinch_TwoWay
It is often of interest in geotechnical structures to pinch out geo-strata in multiple different

directions. This model illustrates the process of pinching out a single layer in two different
directions.
5.1.1
Purpose
This model is meant to illustrative the concept for performing this type of modeling and is not
meant to represent a real-world scenario.
5.1.2
The geometry can be seen in Figure 75. Overall there is three soil layers bottom, middle pinched,
out layer top layer. The middle pinched out layer goes to a maximum height at one corner of the
model and then pinches out about three quarters a way through at either direction away from the
corner.
Figure 75 Geometry of the Pinch_TwoWay model

A complex meshing situation is created in which the mesh must be properly created for this
numerical model. It is noted that it is ideal if the numerical model has a region present at the point
at which the model pinches out.
The pinch-out-zone is specified by the intersection of two surfaces. It is ideal if a region passes
directly through the intersection point between the two surfaces.
5.1.3
3D Meshing
Page 68 of 97
Material Properties
The material properties are merely selected as average properties to illustrate a concept.
5.1.4
The results of the model meshing may be seen in the following Figure 76, and these results
illustrate the pinch out of a 3D surface.
Figure 76 Results of successful meshing
5.2 PIT SIMPLE

Project:
Model:
3DMeshing
Pit_Simple
This is another model in the library of 3D meshing examples, which provides examples as to the
ability of this finite element solver to mesh varies scenarios created by the software.
5.2.1
Purpose
The primarily purpose of this model is to convey the concept behind a potential numerical model
rather than conveying a specific precise model to an actual real world situation. Thus the material
properties and the boundary conditions selected are merely illustrative.
5.2.2
The geometry of the model may be seen in the following Figure 77.
3D Meshing
Page 69 of 97
Figure 77 Geometry of the Pit Simple model
5.2.3
Material Properties
Only a single material is considered for this model, therefore it is homogenous. The saturated
hydraulic conductivity of 2 x 2-2 m/day is selected.
5.2.4
This model illustrates the formation of a pit through the use of two separate surfaces. The top
surface represents the topology of the pit and the bottom surface represents the very bottom of
the numerical model.
A region is drawn around the edges at the top of the pit to further exemplify the break from the pit
from the above surface. It should be noted that although the region is drawn at this point it is not
actually necessary in this numerical model.
3D Meshing
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Figure 78 Successful meshing of the Pit Simple 3D model

It can be seen from the results, the model solution that this model solves with reasonable accuracy
and the results indicate successful meshing of the numerical model.
5.3 PINCHING SIMPLE

Project:
Model:
3DMeshing
Pinching_Simple
This model illustrates the very simple case of pinching out a single layer in a numerical model. The
interaction between surfaces and regions is illustrated in order to provide descriptions of the
concepts behind building a three-dimensional model.
The concepts behind this model then can be applied to more advance numerical models as they can
be created.
5.3.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate in a simplistic manner the pinching out of a soil layer to
zero thickness.
5.3.2
The geometry of the figure may be seen in the following three-dimensional representation of this
model. A square block of soil is created in which has ultimately has three layers. The middle layer
will be pinched out to zero thickness half way through the model.
The technique for doing this is illustrated in the model. A simplistic flow regime is created for this
model and a constant flux upper boundary condition is created in which water continually flows
down and through the model.
3D Meshing
Page 71 of 97
Figure 79 Geometry of the Pinching Simple model
5.3.3
Material Properties
Two different material properties are utilized for this model. The clay with a hydraulic conductivity
of 3.97 x 102 m/day and in a Loamy material that is more conductive with a hydraulic conductivity
of 2.59 x 101 m/day.
5.3.4
It should be noted that prior to creation of the three models the user could preview the various
aspects of the model as the solver views them. These functions are available through the following
functions Solve > Preview > Surfaces. The user is encouraged to first run these functions prior to
solving a full three-dimensional model. This will insure that the mesh is properly created for the
numerical model.
Once the model has be created and it can be solved under the Solve > Analyze button. This will
mesh the problem appropriately and establish and compute the results in flow regime. The
resulting flow regime of this model may be seen in the following Figure 80. The final mesh created
by this numerical model may be also seen.
The results indicate reasonable solution of the model giving the node properties entered. It also
highlights the ability of the solver to pinch out a layer to zero thickness.
3D Meshing
Page 72 of 97
Figure 80 Results for the Pinching Simple model
5.4 PILE SIMPLE

Project:
Model:
3DMeshing
Pile_Simple
This model is designed to illustrate the modeling of a simple pile of material in a 3D manner. In this
case a standard block or square block of material is created, and a pile of material with sloping
sides and four corners is extruded up from the center of the block. The pile has separate material
properties than that of the original block.
5.4.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to demonstrate the simple concepts of modeling a pile of earth
material.
5.4.2
The geometry of this model may be seen in the following figure. Overall the model consists of a pile
of materials sitting on a block of original material. The height of the original ground surfaces is
taken to be 15m and the height of the top of the pile is taken to be 20m.
3D Meshing
Page 73 of 97
Figure 81 Geometry of the Pile Simple model

The side slopes are extruded upwards in an even manner in all corners. This model requires
creation of a grid in which the intersection points represents key evaluation locations in the model.
For example grid lines must cross at the four corners of the base of the pile and the four corners of
the top of the pile. Additional diagonal features are placed at the corners of the pile in order to
improve the ability of the solver to do proper meshing of the pile.
Figure 82 Features placed at the corners of the pile to aid in proper meshing
5.4.3
Material Properties
Standard materials properties of clay and sand are used in this case to model the materials. This
particular model is represented as a clay pile of clay type of material over a sand base.
Therefore, when water rains on the top of this pile, it will infiltrate down and eventually flow into
this sand base. Putting in these types of material properties will therefore give us an idea of the
flow regime established by this type of model.
5.4.4
The results indicate that a reasonable flow regime is established. The meshing is reasonable for
this numerical model and the results provide a reasonable concept of flow.
3D Meshing
Page 74 of 97
It can be seen that there is a concentration of flow around the corners of pile of material.
Established pore-water pressures may be seen in the Figure 83. The results indicate a reasonable
solution of the numerical model.
Figure 83 Established pore-water pressures of the resulting model solution
Columns
Page 75 of 97
6 COLUMNS
6.1 HEAP COLUMN
Project:
Model:
Columns
HeapColumn
Columns of material are often simulated in lab experiments in which the hydraulic properties of a
certain material must be established. This is particularly of importance in the area of heap leaching.
This model represents the calibration of SVFLUX to a specific a heap leach column.
6.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of this column model is to calibrate the unsaturated soil properties to the measured
properties in the heap column.
6.1.2
The model in this case is set up as a transient and axisymmetric model. In this particular model a
sand and gravel mixture is placed below the heap material and a gravel material is also used at the
base of the column to create a system where flow is not inhibited. It is often difficult is such
column experiments to insure a capillary barrier does not occur at the base of the heap material.
Flux sections are placed along at the very top of the model at the base of the heap material at
rates the base of the sand and gravel mixture, and at the very base of the gravel to determine the
flow. Measuring points are also placed throughout the numerical model to report the pore-water
pressure and volumetric water contents in various points in the model.
These are used to calibrate with actual sensor readings from the column experiment. Geometry of
the final model may be seen in the following Figure 84.
Figure 84 Geometry of the HeapColumn model
6.1.3
Columns
Page 76 of 97
Material Properties
The heap material has porosity of 0.408 and a saturated hydraulic conductivity of 8 x 103 per
minute. In this particular example the heap material hydraulic properties are fixed. In actual
modeling process these material properties would realistic be varied such that to match the
resulting water content and the pore-water pressures as measured throughout the heap leach
column.
The unsaturated properties of the heap material are represented by the Fredlund and Xing soilwater characteristics curve fitting function and the Modified Campbell unsaturated hydraulic
conductivity function. Sand and gravel and as well as the gravel materials are presented by
properties typical to the sand and gravel materials types.
6.1.4
Of importance to this particular model is that the flows out the bottom of the actual column
experiment match the computed flows of the numerical model.
Therefore, the results of the flow as a function of time passed the Flux 3 flux sections are
presented in the numerical model. These results are shown in Figure 85.
Figure 85 Results of the HeapColumn example model
Well Pumping
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7 WELL PUMPING
7.1 FLUSHING WELLS
Project:
Model:
WellPumping
Flushing_Wells
In this example two wells are created in which one a head is maintained at an elevated height
according the background water table and the adjacent well. A reduced height is maintained in
order to create a flow regime between the two wells.
A situation such as this may be useful in terms of clean up of spills or underground contamination
in which the overall flow regime creates the situation in which the water is cycled from one
borehole to the other.
7.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of this numerical model is to illustrate the use of the SVFLUX software in well-pumping
calculations. The amount of flow, which traverses between the two boreholes may be, calculated
with the flux section. The resulting water table and gradients at various points in the numerical
model may be also easily calculated.
7.1.2
This model is a very simple homogenous model in which boundary conditions of 20 m are set at
either side of the model. Then in the right-most borehole a head of 25 m is maintained. This is
contrasted by a head of 10m and which is maintained at the left most pumping well.
The concept is to set up an overall flow regime, which creates flow from right to left in the
numerical model. Lastly a flux section is placed adjacent to the left most well such that flow
between the wells can be calculated.
Figure 86 Setup of the FlushingWells model
7.1.3
Well Pumping
Page 78 of 97
Material Properties
One material is specified in this model as a Sandy Silty material with a hydraulic conductivity of
4.63 x 10-5 m/s. The unsaturated water contents are calculated according to Fredlund and Xing
fitting of the soil-water characteristics curve. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is not accounted
for in the current model.
7.1.4
The resulting flow regime may be seen in Figure 87. It can be seen as well the calculation of the
flux between the boreholes may be seen as calculated in the FlexPDE solution engine. The results
indicate that a successful flow regime has been set up between the two boreholes and established
such that a cleansing of the water can occur at a specified rate.
Figure 87 Resulting water table and flow-lines, which show the flow between the wells
7.2 PUMPED WELL SINGLE

Project:
Model:
WellPumping
PumpedWellSingle
The pumped well single model file is designed to illustrate the use of SVFLUX in applying pumping
to a well in a two-dimensional model. The boundary in model geometry is assumed to roughly
approximate the construction of an excavation into the soil. It assumed that the boundary
conditions at the edge of the numerical model are known and are applied.
7.2.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate the use of SVFLUX to calculate the effect of pumping on a
well on the local water table. The model illustrates the application of SVFLUX in a construction
setting to which calculation of the flow gradients are calculation of the resulting change on the
water table can be determined. The purpose of the model is to determine the resulting water table
distribution.
7.2.2
The geometry of the problem is selected such that there is a pumping well next to a theoretical
excavation. The pumping of water is assumed to happen and to be screened at the very base of
the well. Head boundary conditions are applied at the left and right of the model to indicate
background field levels and are assumed to be far enough away from the well to not determine the
outcome the solution.
Well Pumping
Page 79 of 97
The geometry and boundary conditions are assumed to be simple enough to solve in the student
version of the software.
A pumping gradient of 0.004 m3/s/m2 is applied to the base of the well. The geometry of the
model may be seen in Figure 88.
Figure 88 Geometry of the Pumped_Well_Single Model
7.2.3
Material Properties
Unsaturated material properties have been selected for this current model. The material consists
Silty and most of the flow occurs. In this case silt low is 1.70 m/s. The soil is represented by the
Fredlund and Xing, fitting curve and the unsaturated portion of the flow is represented by the
Modified Campbell unsaturated function.
The Modified Campbell method takes the Fredlund and Xing equation and raises it to a power such
that the slope of the overall function is increased from the soil-water characteristics curve
equation. The theory of Modified Campbell equation may be seen in the theory manual for the
SVFLUX software.
The small layer of silt of hydraulic conductivity is present of the base of this model. The dense silt
conductivity is 4.2 x 10-9 m/s and it is represented by the Fredlund and Xing soil-water
characteristic curve fitting method as well as the Modified Campbell equation.
7.2.4
The model may be solved by pressing the Solve > Analyze button. Once solved a number of items
can be noted. It is first noted that the mesh is refined around the base of the pumping well. This is
due the result of high gradients in the area directly around the well. In this model the automatic
mesh refinement recognizes the need for additional gradients, additional resolution in this area,
and subsequently increases the mesh resolution.
Resulting flow gradients around the base of the well as the result of the pumping may be seen in
the following Figure 89.
Well Pumping
Page 80 of 97
Figure 89 Water table resulting from the specified pumping levels

It should also be noted that the resulting water table may be plotted in the software under the Plot
> Water Table menu option.
Figure 90 Results
Well Pumping
Page 81 of 97
Figure 91 Increased mesh density due to high gradients around the bottom of the well
7.3 PLAN INJECTOR

Project:
Model:
WellPumping
Plan_Injector
The plan injector model is designed to illustrate the solution of flow models in plan view. In such a
model the x and y coordinates represent plan view dimensions. Boundary conditions may be
attached to boreholes or to the edges of the model and the flow regime is calculated as a
distribution across the domain of the problem.
This type of model set up is useful for solving regional distribution of ground water levels across
areas in which the material is generally is homogeneous by i.e.: there is no significant geo-strada
layering and in which the material properties are somewhat simplified.
7.3.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate the solution of plan view seepage models.
7.3.2
The current model is set up such that the geometry covers approximately the area of a football
field in either in both the x and y directions. A multitude of boreholes are set up in the model and
two different soil properties are entered into the model to illustrate the affect of varying material
properties.
The geometry extents are modified somewhat to illustrate the use of mesh generation to handle
slightly non-regular boundary conditions. A variety of different head and pumping boundary
conditions are set up on the various boreholes. The boreholes in the top part of the model are
source boreholes with head boundary conditions that are enforced through the model. The borehole
at the very bottom of the model is a borehole in which pumping is occurring at a rate of 0.2m
m3/s/m2.
Well Pumping
Page 82 of 97
Figure 92 Geometry of the Plan Injector Model
7.3.3
Material Properties
Two different material properties are set up in the current model. The primary material is silt with a
saturated hydraulic conductivity of 6 x 105 m/s. A small sandy area of higher conductivity is
entered in the lower left region of the model. The conductivity of the sand is 3 x 10-3 m/s.
Unsaturated flow is not considered in this model.
7.3.4
The model is solved by pressing the Solve > Analyze menu item in the front end. Solution proceeds
quickly and the distribution of the pore-water pressures and heads may be seen in the final model.
Gradients can be seen in the solver file as becoming increasing concentrated close to the borehole
at which pumping occurs. A reasonable mesh is generated for each of the boreholes in the area as
well.
The results of the numerical model may also be visualized in the AcuMesh back end. The affect of
the flow may be seen by plotting the flow gradients in the numerical model and it can be again
seen on how the flow concentrates around the borehole at which pumping occurs.
The total flow across the model in terms of flow volumes can be computed by placing a flux section
between the source boreholes and the pumping borehole. Flux section 1 reports the total flow
between the various boreholes.
Well Pumping
Page 83 of 97
Figure 93 Results of Plan Injector Model
7.4 STRAIGHT RIVER

Project:
Model:
RegionalFlow
River_TS
SVFlux implements the River object in 3D models to simulate the head conditions imposed on
regional flow by the river systems present. River objects can be easily specified in SVFlux by
providing the x,y coordinates of the river. The river elevation is then inferred from the top surface
in the model, which may be defined in a number of ways included XYZ survey data. The river
object acts as a head boundary condition imposing a head equal to the river elevation along the
rivers length.
7.4.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate the use of a fictional river consisting of only 2 points.
7.4.2
The model is rectangular in plan view with a gently sloping top surface. Head boundary conditions
are imposed on each end of the rectangle to generate a flow gradient. The river cuts through the
centerline of the rectangle. A tunnel object exists in the interior of the rectangular cylinder and is
extracting water at a rate of 16 m3/day.
Well Pumping
Page 84 of 97
Figure 94 Geometry of the River_TS Model
7.4.3
Material Properties
A sand material was chosen with a saturated hydraulic conductivity of 1 m/day and a porosity of
0.3. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is represented by a Modified Campbell estimation and the
SWCC by a Fredlund & Xing fit.
7.4.4
From the AcuMesh image below we can see a cut plane at Y=50 showing head contours developing
around the tunnel and river objects as they alter the overall right to left gradient.
Well Pumping
Page 85 of 97
Figure 95 Results of River_TS Model
7.5 WELL DEWATERING WITH SHEET PILING

Project:
Models:
WellPumping
Dewater_SheetPiling_SS, Dewater_SheetPiling_T
In these example models, a pumping well is enclosed by sheet piling driven into the ground 17 m.
The water level will be lowered by 3m from the original water table. This construction related
dewatering scenario is simulated using SVFlux.
7.5.1
Purpose
The analysis is carried out with 3D steady state and transient analysis to answer the following basic
questions:
1.
2.
7.5.2
1.
What type of water pump can be efficiently used to dewater the site in a timely manner?
This question will be answered by a transient analysis;
Upon targeted water level being reached, what is the pumping rate necessary to maintain
the water level inside of the sheet piled region? This question will be answered by a steady
state analysis.

Geometric information:
Whole site for modeling is taken 30 m X 30 m, 25m deep
Sheet piling enclosed region is taken 10 m X 10 m, 17m deep
Water well is modeled using a VOID region, 17m deep
Well Pumping
Page 86 of 97
Elevations of surfaces:
Elevation 1: -25 m
Elevation 2: -17.5m
Elevation 3: -17 m
Elevation 4: 0 m
2.
Initial water level: -9 m

Targeted water level: -12 m
Boundary head of the site: -9 m
Water flux rate out of the specified water well boundary: 50 m/day
Water well radius: 0.5 m; screen length is in layer 2, which is 0.5 m high.
Water fluxes in both the sides of well and bottom layer of the well,
This gives a total flux rate of [(2*PI*0.5)*0.5+PI*0.5^2]*50 = 117.8 m3/day
Figure 96 Geometric top view of the dewatering with sheet piling models
7.5.3
Material Properties
Soil material properties:

Saturated hydraulic conductivity:
Porosity:
Fredlund and Xin Fit parameters:
1 m/day
0.3
af:
nf:
mf:
hr:
8 kPa
8
1
3000 kPa
Well Pumping
Page 87 of 97
The rest of the parameters are software defaults.
7.5.4
The steady state analysis shows that the water level can be maintained below 13.5 m with the
specified pump flow rate. The engineer engaged in this design may find it more economical to use
a less powerful water pump to meet the construction requirements.
Figure 97 Pore water pressure distributions after steady state analysis

The transient analysis model is used to answer the first question outlined at the beginning. From
the following 3d slicing plot at the well center section, we can see that the water table is
successfully dropped down below 12 m in the 4th day. This suggests the water pump flow rate
input previously is satisfactory if the required date of dewatering is 4 days.
Well Pumping
Page 88 of 97
Figure 98 Pore water pressure distributions after transient analysis
7.6 PUMPING WELLS

Project:
Model:
WellPumping
PumpingWellsBasic3D.svm
Well objects are implemented to simulate piezometric wells that can be used for pumping or
injection of water. Well objects are represented by nodes in the finite element mesh and do not
have any real thickness. They act as a source or sink internal boundary condition. A well object will
always start from the top surface and proceed vertically into the ground. There is a screen part in
the bottom end of a well object. The screened length is the only part that actually pumps mass out
or injects mass into the model domain. The well objects are added in a table and therefore a large
number of well objects can be added at one time. This feature is ideal for regional groundwater
modeling where the user may have a large number of wells with compiled pumping data.
7.6.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to illustrate how a group of well objects pump water and lower the
water table.
7.6.2
The geometry of the model is shown in Figure 99. The modeling domain is 10 m X 4 m and 8 m
deep. There are a total of three wells are in the model. Their dimensions can be seen in the
following table:
Well
1
2
3
Depth (m)
4.6
5.2
5.8
Screen Length (m)

3
2.6
2
Well Pumping
Page 89 of 97
Constant head boundary conditions are specified at 5 m on the each sides of the model. The
pumping rate of the first well is 1 X 10-6 m3 / s. The pumping rate of the second well is 1.6 X 106
m3 / s. The pumping rate of the third well is 1 X 10-6 m3 / s. The negative values represent that
the well objects are pumping mass out of the model domain.
Figure 99 Geometry of the Pump Wells example model
7.6.3
Material Properties
Soil material properties:

Saturated hydraulic conductivity: 1X10-7 m/s
Saturated VWC:
0.28
Fredlund and Xing Fit parameters:
af: 10 kPa
nf: 1
mf: 1
hr: 3000 kPa
The rest of the parameters are software defaults.
7.6.4
Well Pumping
Page 90 of 97
The steady state analysis shows that the water level can be lowed to 2 m with the specified pump
flow rates. The resulting water table may be seen in Figure 100.
Figure 100 Results of the Pump Wells example model
Waste Rock
Page 91 of 97
8 WASTE ROCK
8.1 WRP2
Project:
Model:
WasteRock
WRP2
This particular example is designed to give the user an idea of potential flow through a waste rock
pile when the rock is stacked in mounds. In some cases different layers of rock are deposited near
the surface. This model studies the flow through varies layers as an indication of the deposition
process for the tops of waste rock piles.
8.1.1
Purpose
The purpose of this model is to determine the general flow regimen and how water might be
delivered deeper into the waste rock.
8.1.2
The geometry of this model is comprised of a series of mounds in which one mound is stacked
against subsequence mounds.
Figure 101 Geometry of the MRP2 example model

Precipitation boundary conditions are then applied to the top of the model and flow is allowed to
proceed through to the model as it naturally occurs. The top layers ranges from sandy to sandy
clay material.
8.1.3
Material Properties
In this model three material properties are specified as representing the top layers of each
deposition mound. Their approximate intrusion beneath other layers is approximated.
8.1.4
Waste Rock
Page 92 of 97
It can be seen once the model is run that water is delivered into the deeper portions of the rock
pile through the top surface layers, which extend in the lateral direction deep into the rock pile.
Therefore, this system acts as a flow system in which water is delivered deep into the pile. A
specific flow regime may be seen in the Figure 102.
Figure 102 Results with a flow regime on the WRP2 example model
Mine Tailings
Page 93 of 97
9 MINE TAILINGS
9.1 SINGLE-LAYER HEAP LEACH PAD
Project:
Model:
MineTailings
PlanarIntersection
Three-dimensional models can be very time-consuming to run. One useful way to reduce the time
requirements is to model geometry as a collection of angled planes instead of using sets of
elevation points. The PlanarIntersection model illustrates this feature by modeling a mine tailings
pile that sits on a non-level ground plane. A flux boundary condition is used to show water flow
through this type of model.
9.1.1
Purpose
Models defined with planar geometry have certain advantages over models defined using elevation
tables. Using planes allows the modeler to directly apply angular measurements without the need
to worry about alignment on grid points. The only special requirement is in the calculation of points
of intersection between layers, which can be done directly within SVOffice without the need for
hand calculations. This makes model development much quicker.
1.
2.
9.1.2
To demonstrate useful techniques in solving certain types of geometry problems, and

To demonstrate a useful geometry layout for a mine tailings problem on a non-level
ground plane.
The first step in the geometry is to create the ground plane. This is easily done from field
measurements at the extents of the model. Note that only three points are required, as a flat plane
is precisely defined from three points.
The key feature in the geometry for this model is in the mine tailings pile. A truncated square
pyramid is a good shape as it is easy to understand and approximates real-world conditions. The
shape is created using a square for the top and drawing in the sides based on field measurements.
Note that any angle and grid point will do, as long as the points all join. After creation, the bottom
of the pyramid can be chopped off to intersect the lower plane using a built-in function in
SVOffice, to ensure a proper division between the tailings and the ground plane.
Boundary conditions are then used to determine flow within the model. First, a simple constant
rainfall is applied to all top surfaces. Next, a water table is created using a one-meter head
boundary condition on the sidewalls. Two of the sidewalls are marked as Zero Flux to control the
direction of flow.
The geometry of this model is shown in Figure 103. Boundary condition coloring has been disabled
to clearly highlight the proper intersection of the two geometrical objects.
9.1.3
Material Properties
The material properties are assigned for the Pile and the Ground in this model. Both materials are
considered saturated (with different levels or permeability) for this particular analysis.
Mine Tailings
Page 94 of 97
Figure 103 Geometry of the Planar Intersection model
9.1.4
Once the model is analyzed, the user can view the pore-water pressure contours in AcuMesh. Other
data can also be added to view additional information about the model.
One view of the resulting pore-water pressure data is shown in Figure 104, below. A bi-level color
map clearly shows the ponding that occurs in this result, as it follows the direction of gravity.
Figure 104 Pore-Water Pressure Data from the Planar Intersection model
Mine Tailings
Page 95 of 97
9.2 TWO-LAYER HEAP LEACH PAD

Project:
Model:
MineTailings
TwoLayerPlanarIntersection
Three-dimensional models can be very time-consuming to run. One useful way to reduce the time
requirements is to model geometry as a collection of angled planes instead of using sets of
elevation points. The TwoLayerPlanarIntersection model illustrates this feature by modeling a twolayer mine tailings pile that sits on a non-level ground plane. A flux boundary condition is used to
show water flow through this type of model.
9.2.1
Purpose
Models defined with planar geometry have certain advantages over models defined using elevation
tables. Using planes allows the modeler to directly apply angular measurements without the need
to worry about alignment on grid points. The only special requirement is in the calculation of points
of intersection between layers, which can be done directly within SVOffice without the need for
hand calculations. This makes model development much quicker.
1.
2.
9.2.2
To demonstrate useful techniques in solving certain types of geometry problems, and

To demonstrate a useful geometry layout for a mine tailings problem on a non-level
ground plane.
The first step in the geometry is to create the ground plane. This is easily done from field
measurements at the extents of the model. Note that only three points are required, as a flat plane
is precisely defined from three points.
The key feature in the geometry for this model is in the mine tailings pile. A truncated square
pyramid is a good shape as it is easy to understand and approximates real-world conditions. The
shape is created using a square for the top and drawing in the sides based on field measurements.
Note that any angle and grid point will do, as long as the points all join. After creation, the bottom
of the pyramid can be chopped off to intersect the lower plane using a built-in function in
SVOffice, to ensure a proper division between the tailings and the ground plane.
Boundary conditions are then used to determine flow within the model. First, a simple constant
rainfall is applied to all top surfaces. Next, a water table is created using a one-meter head
boundary condition on the sidewalls. Two of the sidewalls are marked as Zero Flux to control the
direction of flow. The geometry of this model is shown in Figure 105.
9.2.3
Material Properties
The material properties are assigned for the Pile and the Ground in this model. Both materials are
considered saturated (with different levels or permeability) for this particular analysis.
Mine Tailings
Page 96 of 97
Figure 105 Geometry of the TwoLayerPlanarIntersection model
9.2.4
Once the model is analyzed, the user can view the pore-water pressure contours in AcuMesh. Other
data can also be added to view additional information about the model.
The resulting pore-water pressure data is shown in Figure 106 and Figure 107, below. A bi-level
color map clearly shows the ponding that occurs in this result, as it follows the direction of gravity.
Figure 106 Pore-Water Pressure Data from the TwoLayerPlanarIntersection model
Mine Tailings
Page 97 of 97
Figure 107 Pore-Water Pressure and Mesh Data from the TwoLayerPlanarIntersection model

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2D / 3D Seepage Modeling Software

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Geometry and Boundary Conditions

The following geometry will be utilized in the creation of the model.

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The bottom of the sand layer can be designated as an impervious boundary.

Specified Flux Section

Where are the smallest finite elements located?

What do the smaller finite elements suggest?

Where are the hydraulic head contours closest together?

What does the closeness of the hydraulic head contours mean?

Is the solution for hydraulic heads influenced by the coefficient of permeability

Perform an approximate, hand calculation to confirm the reasonableness of the

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Geometry and Boundary Conditions

Figure 2 Example geometry of the PipeFill

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Results and Discussions

Figure 3 Contour plots for the PipeFill example model

2.2 IRRIGATION CANAL WITH PUMPING

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To determine the flux from the canal to the surrounding soil.

Geometry and Boundary Conditions

Figure 4 Geometry of the Irrigation Canal with pumping model

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Results and Discussions

Figure 5 Result of example model Irrigation

2.3 PUMP SLOPE

Geometry and Boundary Conditions

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Figure 6 Geometry of the Pump Slope example model

Results and Discussions

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Geometry and Boundary Conditions

Figure 8 Geometry Soil Cover model

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Results and Discussions

Figure 9 Results of the Soil Cover model

3.2 CHANGING ROOT ZONE IN RESIDENTIAL SLAB-ON-GROUND STUDY

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The specific output requested is:

The ratio of bare soil evaporation to transpiration at 100 days.

Geometry and Boundary Conditions

Figure 10 Geometry of the Changing Root Zone Model

Results and Discussions

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Figure 11 Active Root Zone Sink Profile at Day 100

3.3 GROWING ROOTS

Geometry and Boundary Conditions

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Figure 12 Geometry of the Growing Roots model

Figure 13 Entry of root growth versus time

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Results and Discussions

Figure 14 Cumulative results of the GrowingRoots model