A hydro-mechanical coupling model for predicting infiltration and ponding in unsaturated soils

Abstract

Unsaturated soils are extensively encountered in nature and engineering practice. Understanding the hydromechanical coupling effects in the infiltration process of an unsaturated porous medium is of considerable interest to the geotechnical and hydrological community. In this paper, a nonlinear, fully hydromechanical coupling model that controls unsaturated flow in a deformable porous medium is presented. It relies on a finite element (FE) solver to calculate the hydromechanical responses of deformable unsaturated soils subjected to transient flow. The model is performed under unsteady rainfall conditions and surface ponding conditions, showcasing its ability to predict the infiltration process. Additionally, an analytical solution and a ponded infiltration test are used as references. Finally, the factors that affect unsaturated flow are discussed based on a series of parametric simulations. The results further indicate that the couplings cannot be neglected and are affected to varying degrees by different parameters.

Keywords

unsaturated soils / hydromechanical coupling / infiltration / finite element (FE) / transient flow

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