Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical analysis of unsaturated soil considering climate change

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The accelerating pace of development throughout the world and the increasing decline of groundwater table underscore the importance of understanding the unsaturated soil behaviour. In particular, realistic estimation of evaporation is necessary in many geotechnical problems, which requires considering the soil stress-strain behaviour. This necessitates soil-atmosphere coupling and performing a thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) analysis. The 2D finite element program EVAP1, which numerically estimates evaporation from unsaturated soil using THM analysis and atmospheric coupling was used to investigate the sensitivity of evaporation to the change of environmental parameters due to the climate change. The effect of the increase in temperature on evaporation was investigated in 2 regions with average temperatures of 20 and 38 degrees. Based on recent studies on the effects of climate change, a 1º increase in temperature and a ±10% change in wind speed were assumed and modelled. It was found that the increases in evaporation and settlement amounts due to temperature increase are slightly lower when the wind speed decreases compared to when wind speed increases. Meanwhile, the changes in temperature and radiation have greater influence on evaporation change than the wind speed. The amount of increase in evaporation depends on the average temperature in the region. The increase in evaporation due to the same amount of temperature increase is higher in colder areas. Finally, the change in evaporation was found to be strongly affected by the residual amount of the soil moisture.

9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG2023)

Coupled Processes in Environmental Geotechnics