3D contaminant flow imaging in transparent granular porous media

Abstract

A physical model based on transparent soil technology is presented as a novel laboratory tool for ground contamination research. The model aims to reproduce both unsaturated and saturated conditions within a Spanish soil formation known as Miga sand. A soil surrogate made of a water-absorbing polymeric gel was employed. Multi-phase flow from a leaking underground storage tank was simulated in both saturated and unsaturated conditions in order to illustrate the usefulness of the technique in simulating a hypothetical spill of a light non-aqueous phase liquid under well-controlled test conditions. The plume observed was found to be spatially variable. The technique permits, for the first time, the simulation of specific grain size distributions in a transparent soil surrogate and visualization of plume development in three dimensions. Preliminary results indicate that the model is a potentially powerful tool for visualising pollutant transport in porous media. A brief description of the test setup, and a summary of the advantages, limitations, and prospective applications are presented.

Discussion of Visual Technique for Seepage Experiment Based on Transparent Rock-Soil Material

“…Carrying out seepage experiment with TRSM can realize the visual observation of seepage process due to the material not only has a similar properties with natural soil from the perspective of strength and deformation, but also the hydraulic property, which were reported in the existing researches [28,30,31]. This kind of material can simulate the fluid flow in different medium based on the different raw material used in the preparation of transparent rock-soil material.…”

“…With the TRSM, visual researches can be carried out from the perspective of simulating the infiltration-flow law of liquid in rock-soil mass [27], the flow test to simulate the flow state of fluid [28], the diffusion mechanism of chemical grouting [29] and contaminant transport in porous media [30] etc. It indicates that the TRSM has a wide application prospect in seepage mechanics.…”

Optimization of Raw Materials for Preparation of Transparent Soil Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…1). After many years' improvement and development (Fernandez et al, 2011;Sui et al, 2011), this technology has become more mature and has made a certain achievements from the perspective of the interaction mechanism of internal structure in the rock-soil body, the analysis of seepage field and the 3D deformation.…”

Shear modulus and damping ratios of transparent soil manufactured by fused quartz

“…Visualization model tests on internal flow, temperature and deformation problems in geotechnical engineering could be non-intrusively measured through using synthetic transparent media and Particle Image Velocimetry techniques [1][2][3]. The mixture of transparent granular materials and pore fluid with the same refractive index has been used as a synthetic transparent soil to mimic the behavior of natural soil.…”