NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL FINGERED FLOW AND QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE GENERATED FLOW FIELD

Abstract

 In this study, saturated and unsaturated seepage simulations were carried out using 2D and 3D nonuniform field model for fingered flow in a two-layer unsaturated zone near the ground surface, and the differences between the 2D and 3D fields were discussed. In addition, a continuous/quantitative evaluation of the occurrence of fingered flow is attempted based on the statistical properties of the velocity distribution obtained from the simulation. The results showed that the upper layer, which has low permeability and high water retention, produced a generally uniform flow field, while the lower layer, which has high permeability and low water retention, produced a distinct finger flow. Although it was difficult to visually compare the 2D and 3D flow fields, it was shown that the differences between the two fields could be quantitatively evaluated based on their statistical properties.