Film Flow along Tunnel Walls
Teamrat A. Ghezzehei and Stefan Finsterle
Contact: Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, 510/486-5688, TAGhezzehei@lbl.gov
Research Objectives
Dripping of liquid water into tunnels or caves affects natural processes (such as formation of speleothems) and is important to engineering applications (such as mining and geologic disposal of nuclear wastes). Current computer models of these processes assume that liquid water drips immediately after entering the tunnel. In contrast, recent field observations showed that film flow and wetting of tunnel walls result in a temporal and spatial lag between liquid emergence and subsequent dripping. The objective of this research is to assess the impact on seepage of film flow along rough tunnel walls and provide a framework for realistic modeling of seepage and evaporation.
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 Schematic diagram of film flow along a cylindrical tunnel wall. The cross section depicts liquid entry at the crown and film flow mediated by capillary roughness. The right panel shows the one-dimensional model of film flow along the tunnel wall and typical capillary pressure profiles for several tunnel sizes.
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