Feasibility of temperature field feeding back seepage field for earth dams

Through the feedback from the continuous distributed temperature field observed on seepage field, the deficiency of the traditional seepage field monitoring can be overcome. Based on an indoor homogeneous earth dam model built for experiment, with distributed fiber temperature sensors and piezometers arranged within the model, information of seepage filed and temperature filed can be obtained simultaneously. A mathematical model for the temporal and spatial distribution of the temperature field of the homogeneous earth dam is established after analyzing the following factors: temperature variation and seepage gradient, temperature difference between seepage water and soil, permeability coefficient, thermal conductivity, specific heat, time and so on. In view of the above, the seepage field is fed back. Using the experimental observation data of the model, coefficients of the mathematical model for earth dams are estimated, and information of the seepage field fed back from the temperature field can be achieved. The verification results show that the proposed mathematical model for the temperature field feeding back the seepage field is feasible, and that the mathematical model built for the seepage field fed back from the temperature field of earth dams is tenable.