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Groundwater inflow assessment to Karaj Water Conveyance tunnel, northern Iran

  • Tunnel Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

In this paper, groundwater inflow into Karaj Water Conveyance (KWC) tunnel was estimated using analytical and numerical methods in 12 different sections of the tunnel length. Further, these sections were rated from groundwater hazard point of view by means of Site Groundwater Rating (SGR) factor. Comparing results show a reasonable accordance between observed water ingress rate and those various methods. Since, KWC tunnel is excavated in fractured rocks with a high level of anisotropy, analytical methods provided highly overestimated water inflow rate. Furthermore all SGR, analytical and numerical results, show high levels of water inflow from fault zones. Maximum water inflow into tunnel was computed as 0.0536 and 0.0432 lit/sec/m using analytical and numerical methods, respectively. Based on SGR method, 11 out of 12 sections in KWC tunnel length are found to be in “No Risk” class with groundwater inflow of less than 0.04 lit/sec/m which are in agreement with analytical and numerical seepage values and also with the observed inflow rate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Birjand, P.O Box 615/97175, Birjand, Iran

    Hadi Farhadian

  2. Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Dept., Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

    Arash Nikvar Hassani & Homayoon Katibeh

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  1. Hadi Farhadian
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  2. Arash Nikvar Hassani
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  3. Homayoon Katibeh
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Correspondence to Hadi Farhadian.

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Farhadian, H., Nikvar Hassani, A. & Katibeh, H. Groundwater inflow assessment to Karaj Water Conveyance tunnel, northern Iran. KSCE J Civ Eng 21, 2429–2438 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0995-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0995-2

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