Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

CIVL 4750 Numerical Solu5ons to

Geotechnical Problems
4: 2D FEM on Seepage Analysis

Jidong Zhao

 Last & This Lecture
•  Last lecture
–  1D FEM
–  Axially loaded pile problem

•  This lecture
–  Seepage problem preliminaries
–  2D Finite elements for seepage analysis
–  Use of SEEP/W

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 2

 Typical Seepage Problems
•  FoundaQon cutoff problem

•  Unconfined flow through an earth dam

Phreatic Surfa ce

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 3

 Typical Seepage Problems
•  Rainfall infiltraQon & resulted fluctuaQon in water tables
25
Infiltration
Flow path
20
Metres

15 Low permeability layer

10

5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

12 Metres
11

•  Pond infiltraQon &

10

9
Long term mounded water table

change of water tables

8

Pre-pond water table

7

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

metres

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 4

 Typical Seepage Problems
•  DissipaQon of excess pore water pressure in earth dam aXer
reservoir drawdown

Reservoir Drawdown

•  Transient weZng front

migraQon through an 8
10

earth dam aXer

6 Time Step Numbers
4
2

reservoir filling
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48

metre

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 5

 Seepage Analysis Basics
Soil water content func5ons

Physical meaning of SWCC

The amount of water that
can be stored or retained
in a soil is a funcQon of
pore water pressure and
the characterisQcs of the
soil structure.

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 6

 Soil Water Content Func5ons
Actual soil water content func5ons for fine sand, silt & clay
Capillary force & surface absorption

Matric potential

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 7

 Hydraulic Conduc5vity Func5ons
Hydraulic conduc5vity

The hydraulic conducQvity funcQon

can be predicted from a soil-water
characterisQc funcQon (Green &
Corey, 1971).

SEEP/W uses a special procedure

to esQmate the hydraulic
conducQvity from SWCC

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 8

 Flow Law
Flow of Water through Soil
The flow of water through both saturated and unsaturated
soil follows Darcy's Law

Validity of Darcy’s law in unsaturated soil (Richards, 1931

and Childs & Collins-George, 1950)

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 9

 Governing Equa5ons

Q: Fluid source term

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 10

 Dimensional Analysis

Q: Fluid source term

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 11

 Coordinate Systems
Quadrilateral/triangular elements
Global Cartesian coordinate system
Local coordinate system
SEEP/W uses the fourth node to disQnguish between triangular and quadrilateral elements.
If the 4th node is zero: triangular; otherwise, quadrilateral.

Trangular element: the 4th node is zero

Nodes 5, 6, and 7- secondary nodes

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 12

 Interpola5on func5on
Summary Approxima5on Func5ons
Interpola5on func5on Nodes Element
2
3
4

3


T = ↵1 + ↵2 x + ↵3 y + ↵4 xy + ↵x2 + ↵6 y 2 6


4


8

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 13

 Interpola5on Func5on
For Quadrilateral Elements

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 14

 Interpola5on Func5on
For Triangular Elements

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 15

 Interpola5on Func5on
2

A3 A1

A2
1 3

For isoparametric elements, applies to other

field variables, e.g., total head

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 16

 Interpola5on Func5on Deriva5ves
ConsQtuQve relaQon for seepage: Darcy’s law

The gradient in the x and y direcQons are

By chain rule of differenQaQon

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 17

 Interpola5on Func5on Deriva5ves
Or
@s

Recall

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 18

 Finite Element Equa5ons
Governing differenQal equaQon

Weak form or variaQonal form

Flux B.C.

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 19

 Finite Element Equa5ons
Governing differenQal equaQon

Weak form

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 20

 SEEP/W 2D Analysis

In matrix form

For a steady-state analysis

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 21

 Time Integra5on

Using backward finite difference scheme

or

Introduce a to accelerate convergence

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 22

 Numerical Integra5on
Use Gauss numerical integraQon to form [K] and [M]
Element (for [K] )

Acceptable integraQon orders in SEEP/W

Element Type Secondary Nodes Integra5on Order
Quadrilateral no 4
Quadrilateral yes 9
Triangular no 1
Triangular yes 3

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 23

 Quadrilateral/Triangular Elements
From Fagan 1992. Finite element analysis. Longman ScienQfic &
Technical. pp. 169-220.)
Quadrilateral element

Triangular element

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 24

 Hydraulic Conduc5vity Matrix

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 25

 Mass (Storage) Matrix

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 26

 Flux Boundary
The nodal boundary flux for a 2D analysis is defined by

For an axisymmetric analysis is

For a plan view analysis is

Nodal flux boundary specified directly at boundary nodes

Unit flux boundary specified along the boundary edges of the
element, except for a plan view analysis
CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 27
 Assembly of Global Equa5ons
Storage of matrices in a large one-dimensional array
Half-bandwidth skyline storage scheme
No soXware restricQons on
the nodal number difference
in an element and on the total
number of nodes

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 28

 Equa5on Solver
•  Solve for the nodal head
•  Gauss eliminaQon techniques

• Can accommodate missing elements in the array -- allow

adding and deleQng elements without renumbering the nodes
and elements – can be useful for excavaQon problems
•  Nonlinear iteraQve procedure—since the material hydraulic
conducQvity and storage properQes are a funcQon of the head

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 29

 Convergence Control
•  Maximum iteraQon number specified
•  The percentage difference in the Euclidean pressure head vector norm is
less than a user-specified value,

•  The constant 1.0 is added to the norm to prevent it from being equal to 0.

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 30

 Gradient & Veloci5es
The gradient at each Gauss or integraQon point

The Darcian velociQes at each Gauss point

The SEEP/W velocity: the specific discharge, or the total flux

divided by the full cross-secQonal area (voids and solids alike).

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 31

 Flow Quan55es
General governing equaQon

Steady-state Analysis

For one element

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 32

 Flow Quan55es
By Darcy’s Law, the total flow between two points is:

Flow from Node i to Node j is

The total flow quanQty through the flux secQon shown in the
Figure is:

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 33

 Transient Analysis
The average change of total head from Node i to Node j can be
expressed as:

The change in flow quanQty from Node i to Node j due to a

change in storage is:

The total flow quanQty from Node i to Node j for a transient

analysis becomes:

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 34

 Summary
•  Seepage problems and seepage analysis
•  2D Finite Element Method
•  Flux boundary and transient problem
•  SEEP/W

•  Next lecture
•  Slope stability analysis
•  Use of SLOPE/W

CIVL 4750 | Lecture 4 | HKUST 35