Dual permeability variably saturated flow and contaminant transport modeling of a nuclear waste repository with capillary barrier protection

摘要

This paper presents a new release of the DRUtES computer program, a finite element numerical solver in one and two dimensions of flow and contaminant transport in a dual porosity variably saturated porous medium.The main part of this paper evaluates the capillary barrier based structure on the Richard – Litoměřice nuclear waste facility in the Czech Republic. The barrier structure is evaluated for various cases under normal regime flow conditions and under emergency conditions caused by intense infiltration. The capillary barrier is based on the unsaturated hydraulic properties of gravel. A failure of the barrier function due to saturation is successfully simulated, and is presented here.