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Rainfall infiltration-induced groundwater table rise in an unsaturated porous medium

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Abstract

Increased rainfall associated with climate change is becoming a common occurrence and can lead to a variety of geoenvironmental hazards. Infiltration during rainfall and deformations of a soil mass are coupled, and the water table can easily experience a rise during these events. A study of the coupling process is important to increase our knowledge concerning the impact of a water level rise on the environment. Based on the theory of seepage and flow in porous media, the theory of elasticity and the soil–water characteristic curve, a two-dimensional hydro-mechanical model for an unsaturated porous medium is developed and incorporated in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The numerical procedure is capable of considering the influences of the soil–water characteristic curve. The effects of varying the boundary conditions on the coupled unsaturated infiltration and deformation equations are investigated. The examples demonstrate that the coupling effects significantly influence the position of the groundwater levels. The rate of change in the water table is closely related to the coupled infiltration and deformation in an unsaturated porous medium.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their thanks to M.E. Bin’e Li of CDUT for performing some of the calculations associated with this work. We thank the Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB733202), NSERC, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41172280, 41272005), Excellent Youth Foundation of Sichuan Scientific Committee (No. 2012JQ0007). The first author would also like to thank the Environmental Geomechanics Research Group of the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, for the hospitality during a research visit. The first author thanks the Innovative Team of the Chengdu University of Technology. The authors are grateful to the substantial constructive comments made by the reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    L. Z. Wu

  2. Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C3, Canada

    A. P. S. Selvadurai

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Correspondence to L. Z. Wu.

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Wu, L.Z., Selvadurai, A.P.S. Rainfall infiltration-induced groundwater table rise in an unsaturated porous medium. Environ Earth Sci 75, 135 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4890-9

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