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A model for multiphase flow and transport in porous media including a phenomenological approach to account for deformation—a model concept and its validation within a code intercomparison study

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Abstract

Multiphase flow processes in unsaturated cohesive soils are often affected by deformation due to swelling and shrinking as a result of varying water contents. This paper presents a model concept which is denoted ‘phenomenological’ in terms of the processes responsible for soil deformation, since the effects of deformation on flow and transport are only considered by constitutive relations that allow an adaptation of the hydraulic properties. This new model is validated in a detailed intercomparison study with two state-of-the-art models that are capable of explicitly describing the processes relevant for the deformation. A ‘numerical experiment’ with a state-of-the-art reference model is used to produce ‘measurement data’ for an inverse-modelling-based estimation of the model input parameters for the phenomenological concept.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Wasserbau, Lehrstuhl für Hydromechanik und Hydrosystemmodellierung, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 61, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    Sandra Freiboth, Holger Class & Rainer Helmig

  2. Institut für Mechanik (Bauwesen), Lehrstuhl II, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 7, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    Tobias Graf & Wolfgang Ehlers

  3. Fachgebiet Bodenmechanik und Grundbau, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schrödinger-Straße, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Viktoria Schwarz & Christos Vrettos

Authors
  1. Sandra Freiboth
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  2. Holger Class
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  3. Rainer Helmig
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  4. Tobias Graf
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  5. Wolfgang Ehlers
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  6. Viktoria Schwarz
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  7. Christos Vrettos
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Correspondence to Holger Class.

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Freiboth, S., Class, H., Helmig, R. et al. A model for multiphase flow and transport in porous media including a phenomenological approach to account for deformation—a model concept and its validation within a code intercomparison study. Comput Geosci 13, 281–300 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-008-9118-6

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