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Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils
Centrifugal modelling, both physical and numerical, has been used for studying groundwater flow and transport processes in the past. However, there was disagreement in previous studies whether numerical models can be used in simulating centrifugal systems under unsaturated flow condition. In the pre...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9374778/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35962135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18103-0 |
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author | Qin, Huanhuan |
author_facet | Qin, Huanhuan |
author_sort | Qin, Huanhuan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Centrifugal modelling, both physical and numerical, has been used for studying groundwater flow and transport processes in the past. However, there was disagreement in previous studies whether numerical models can be used in simulating centrifugal systems under unsaturated flow condition. In the present study, a numerical model based on Richards’ equation was developed to predict one-dimensional unsaturated flow in centrifugal systems. The validity of the model was tested using data from physical models in four published benchmark problems. The ability of the numerical model to close mass balance was also tested. It was shown that the newly developed numerical model was able to recreate the four benchmark problems quite successfully, indicating that using such a model under unsaturated flow condition is feasible. The mass conservation result shows that the model is more sensitive to spatial grid resolution than to specified temporal step. Therefore, fine spatial discretization is suggested to ensure the simulation quality. Additionally, adaptive temporal time stepping method can be used to improve the computational efficiency. It was found that the dimensionless factors used for scaling physical dimensions by 1/N, seepage velocity by N, and temporal dimension by 1/N(2) were useful parameters for scaling centrifugal systems. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9374778 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93747782022-08-14 Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils Qin, Huanhuan Sci Rep Article Centrifugal modelling, both physical and numerical, has been used for studying groundwater flow and transport processes in the past. However, there was disagreement in previous studies whether numerical models can be used in simulating centrifugal systems under unsaturated flow condition. In the present study, a numerical model based on Richards’ equation was developed to predict one-dimensional unsaturated flow in centrifugal systems. The validity of the model was tested using data from physical models in four published benchmark problems. The ability of the numerical model to close mass balance was also tested. It was shown that the newly developed numerical model was able to recreate the four benchmark problems quite successfully, indicating that using such a model under unsaturated flow condition is feasible. The mass conservation result shows that the model is more sensitive to spatial grid resolution than to specified temporal step. Therefore, fine spatial discretization is suggested to ensure the simulation quality. Additionally, adaptive temporal time stepping method can be used to improve the computational efficiency. It was found that the dimensionless factors used for scaling physical dimensions by 1/N, seepage velocity by N, and temporal dimension by 1/N(2) were useful parameters for scaling centrifugal systems. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9374778/ /pubmed/35962135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18103-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Qin, Huanhuan Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title | Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title_full | Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title_fullStr | Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title_full_unstemmed | Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title_short | Use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
title_sort | use of centrifugal systems for investigating water flow processes in unsaturated soils |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9374778/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35962135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18103-0 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT qinhuanhuan useofcentrifugalsystemsforinvestigatingwaterflowprocessesinunsaturatedsoils |