Fully saturated, 2-D steady seepage in a homogeneous, isotropic, parallelogrammic ramp is studied using the methods of complex analysis (a conformal mapping and integral representation of mixed boundary-value problem). A porous medium flow is induced by an overland free-surface flow with the latter determining the "shearing" pressure (hydraulic head) of the former through a boundary condition along one side of the polygon serving as a conjugation line. For a uniform overland flow, the stream function along the conjugation line has a single maximum corresponding to the Toth hinge line. The inflow rate into the ramp is divided into a part exfiltrating through the toe and through a toe-adjacent segment of the conjugation boundary. A wavy free surface is shown to generate a more complex seepage topology.
Steady two-dimensional gravity-driven seepage in homogeneous porous lumps is studied with the help of conformal mappings and boundary value problem technique. The Terzaghi flow pattern for a trapezoidal dam exposed to a heavy rainstorm is analysed. For a semi-circular massif, the influence of impervious bed inclination is studied. Recharge–discharge distributions, hinge points, gradients along the lump contour as well as the total flow rate exhibiting water–bearing capacity of the unit are found in explicit form. Generalizations for non-isobaric boundary conditions are discussed.
Soil slopes satisfying the condition of a constant exit gradient (constant Darcian velocity) and the seepage face (isobaricity) condition are found by complex analysis. For an empty drainage trench, soil is infinitely deep and the flow domain is bounded by two branches of a phreatic surface and the trench contour. The problem is solved by conformal mapping of the Zhukovskii domain (half-plane) onto the hodograph domain (lune). The ultimately stable seepage face and the inflow rate are determined as functions of a specified exit gradient. With decreasing of the gradient the trench flattens. If the gradient is 1, the depth-width aspect ratio of the trench reaches 0.21. Similar conformal mapping of a lune in the hodograph plane on a half-strip in the complex potential plane is used to solve the problem of a phreatic surface flow from a soil channel, whose equipotential contour satisfies the condition of constant "entrance" gradient. For a dam slope, the flow domain is underlain by an impermeable bottom and the hodograph is a circular triangle with a unit-gradient circle as the slope image. The Polubarinova-Kochina method of analytical differential equations is modified to reconstruct the complex coordinate and the complex potential as a function of an auxiliary variable. The resulting slope of unit exit gradient has a depth-width ratio of 1.22.
Abstract A study is made of the longitudinal 2D viscous steady flow and heat flux between two plates. Optimal shape design problems are solved in explicit form and shown to have unique global extrema. Conformal mappings are used to bring the problems into a fixed domain and solve them as Dirichlet boundary value problems in the form of Cauchy integrals and series expansions. For the simplest problem statement the optimum is shown to coincide with the well‐known concrete dam outline of constant hydraulic gradient.
