A new procedure has been developed to improve the velocity field computed by the continuous Galerkin finite element method (CG). It enables extending the postprocessing algorithm proposed by Cordes and Kinzelbach (1992) to three‐dimensional (3‐D) models by using prismatic patches for saturated groundwater flow. This approach leverages a dual mesh to preserve local mass conservation and provides interpolated velocities based on consistent fluxes. To develop this 3‐D approach, a triangular conservative patch is introduced by computing not only advection fluxes, but also vertical infiltrations, storage changes, and other sink or source terms. This triangular patch is then used to develop a prismatic patch, which consists of subprisms in two layers. By dividing a single two‐layer patch into two separate one‐layer patches, two dimensional (2‐D) algorithms can be applied to compute velocities. As a consequence, each subelement is able to preserve local mass conservation. A hypothetical 3‐D model is used to evaluate the precision of streamlines and flow rates generated by this approach and the FEFLOW simulation program.
Water inrush is one of the major mining disasters that may lead to numerous casualties. The development of information techniques makes it possible to monitor the occurrence and evolution of water inrush. Then, locating monitors for water inrush becomes a primary problem. This study presents a method of optimal location of water level sensors by constructing a set covering model. The monitoring scope of the water level sensor at each location in a given time is computed first based on the numerical simulation of water spreading along mine tunnels. In this simulation, the water inrush quantity is assigned using the mine drainage capability over which an accident may occur. Then the greedy algorithm is used to optimize the number and positions of water level sensors. As results, a mine water disaster can be monitored in the given time after it happened. The proposed method is then verified in the Beiyangzhuang coal mine in the North China. The results show that at least 22, 36, 42, 64 and 106 water level sensors are needed to monitor water disasters in the whole mine within 60, 30, 20, 10 and 5 min, respectively.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.