Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

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Computers and Geotechnics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compgeo

Research Paper

Numerical simulation of dynamic water grouting using quick-setting slurry T

in rock fracture: the Sequential Diffusion and Solidification (SDS) method
⁎
Shucai Li , Dongdong Pan, Zhenhao Xu, Peng Lin, Yichi Zhang
Geotechnical & Structural Engineering Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The two-liquid mixing grouting method of quick-setting slurry and its time-dependent viscosity characteristics
Sequential Diffusion and Solidification method lead to an uneven distribution of viscosity in the slurry diffusion zone. At present, there still lacks reasonable and
Rock fractures effective slurry-water interaction analysis method to reveal the diffusion behavior of quick-setting slurry in
Dynamic water grouting dynamic water. Therefore, a Sequential Diffusion and Solidification (SDS) method was proposed in this study,
Volume of fluid method
taking the spatial-temporal evolution of slurry viscosity into account. In addition, the validity and necessity of
Wide-fracture
the SDS method were verified. The maximum error between the calculation result and the test result was less
than 15%. Based on the SDS method, the slurry diffusion process under different flow velocities was analyzed
and the effects of flow velocities on the changes of the grouting pressure, the counter-flow diffusion distance, and
the down-flow diffusion behavior were explored. The applicability and the feasibility of studying the slurry
diffusion mechanism in a wide fracture on an engineering scale were determined. This further confirmed the
adequacy and the power of the numerical approach. Therefore, the SDS method could be used to simulate the
dynamic water grouting. The SDS method could also provide an improved method for the simulation of per-
meation grouting and compaction grouting.

1. Introduction complicated. The karst medium is complicated [40,42]. It is difficult to

Water and mud inrush is a common geological disaster that occurs
when building tunnels and underground engineering in karst regions
[41,43]. The grouting method is progressing rapidly as a kind of ef-
fective means for improving the mechanical properties of rocks and
preventing groundwater leakage in construction projects [1,20,30].
Therefore, through theoretical derivation [20], laboratory tests [31],
and numerical calculation [3], a series of slurry diffusion analysis
methods for rock and soil media have been proposed [28,32,5]. Gothall
et al. [10–12] studied fracture dilation and fracture-fracture interaction
during grouting. Funehag et al. [8,9] proposed a simple rule of thumb
that took into consideration the fracture aperture width, grouting
pressure, time, and material characteristics in order to study the pe-
netration of fracture grouting. However, the development of dynamic
water grouting theory is still at an immature stage. To study the law of
slurry diffusion in dynamic water, it is necessary to clarify the diffusion
behavior of slurry and the mechanism of slurry-water interaction. The
traditional seepage grouting theory and the grouting theory of fractured
rock mass are quite different from reality, and the conclusions obtained
are difficult to use to provide precise guidance for grouting design and
construction. The diffusion behavior of slurry in dynamic water is very
accurately describe the passage of water even with advanced geophy-
sical methods. The slurry-water interaction is also complicated. Slurry,
as a special fluid, has the property of coagulability in addition to its
fluidity. It is difficult or even impossible to obtain the desired analytical
results based on merely theoretical solutions.
Therefore, many scholars have carried out corresponding research
on the problem of dynamic water grouting. In the area of laboratory
testing and theoretical research, Zhang et al. [34,35] studied the dif-
fusion behavior of quick-setting slurry in a dynamic water of fracture
through theoretical derivation and laboratory experiments. Zhang et al.
[36] carried out experimental research on the diffusion process of slurry
under different water flow conditions for a single-fracture medium and
qualitatively analyzed the effect of water flow rate on grouting. Zhang
[37] developed a large-scale slab fracture test system and analyzed the
slurry diffusion process under different water flow conditions. The U-
type diffusion law of the slurry was found based this research. Liu [18]
carried out an analysis of slurry diffusion behavior for the dynamic
water condition using a quick-setting grouting material and proposed
the plugging criterion of dynamic water grouting. However, the phy-
sical model test is usually limited by the performance of the monitoring
method. It is impossible to observe the action law of internal slurry that

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: lisc@sdu.edu.cn (S. Li), zhenhao_xu@sdu.edu.cn (Z. Xu), sddxytlp@mail.sdu.edu.cn (P. Lin), 201834758@sdu.edu.cn (Y. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2020.103497
Received 5 August 2019; Received in revised form 26 December 2019; Accepted 14 February 2020
Available online 04 March 2020
0266-352X/ Published by Elsevier Ltd.
S. Li, et al.
is injected at different times. It is difficult to effectively capture and
describe the pressure field and velocity field distribution under dynamic
water conditions. It is still more difficult to obtain the physical field
information of the slurry diffusion with complete quantification.
A reasonable and effective numerical analysis method can display
the diffusion behavior of slurry in dynamic water intuitively and flex-
ibly. The multi-field information can be calculated under specific
grouting conditions. Furthermore, the mechanism of grouting-water
interaction in the grouted medium can be revealed. However, there are
relatively few numerical simulations of slurry diffusion under hydro-
dynamic conditions. Most of the studies regarded slurry as a Newtonian
fluid for uniform diffusion, ignoring the influence of the physical and
chemical properties of the slurry diffusion process itself. Wang et al.
[29] established a three-dimensional fracture network model consistent
with regional rock mass characteristics and combined the model with
the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to simulate the flow
diffusion behavior of slurry in a three-dimensional fracture network. Li
et al. [19] proposed a diffusion model for self-expanding slurry in a
single fracture based on the finite volume method (FVM) and the fluid
volume method (VOF). Gustafson et al. [13] established a single plate
fracture slurry transport diffusion equation for constant pressure
grouting based on the Bingham fluid constitutive model. Based on the
Reynolds equation, Zou et al. [39] proposed an analytical method for
the slurry diffusion process under the saturation condition of a fracture.
Saeidi et al. [25] proposed a numerical calculation model for calcu-
lating the flow and diffusion distance of a slurry in a fractured rock
mass and adjusted the numerical model using the measured data and
the on-site analysis method of the grouting process. In addition, many
scholars have used the CFD method to carry out exploratory research in
the field of multiphase fluids. Capecelatro et al. [4] used the CFD model
(Euler-Lagrangian model) to study the flow settlement law of mud in
horizontal pipelines. Kaushal et al. [14] performed a numerical simu-
lation analysis using a hybrid model and an Euler model. Liu et al. [17]
used the CFD model to carry out numerical simulation studies on the
flow characteristics of cementitious paste filling materials in pipeline
media. Zhu et al. [38] established a multi-phase fluid CFD model for
slurry and a finite element coupling model for a fractured rock mass
unit to solve the governing equations. The fluid-solid coupling of the
grouting process was achieved by establishing continuous boundary
conditions for the fluid and solid interface. Uzi et al. [27] studied the
flow characteristics of coarse particles in horizontal hydraulic con-
veying. In recent years, some scholars [16,34] have introduced the
time-dependent viscosity of slurry into the numerical calculation
model. It is believed that the viscosity changes in the slurry diffusion
process are only a function of time. The viscosity at different positions
changes synchronously with time. The effect of this simplification on
ordinary cement slurry is relatively small, but it has a great influence on
quick-setting slurry. Therefore, Zhang et al. [35] constructed an ana-
lytic function for the spatial-temporal distribution of the slurry viscosity
of a horizontal fracture. However, there was great difficulty in con-
structing an analytical function for the complex hydrodynamic condi-
tions because the fracture width varied arbitrarily with the spatial po-
sition and there was a contacted erosive fracture.
In addition, the spatial–temporal distribution characteristics of
viscosity will directly affect the effectiveness of the calculation and
analysis. If only the variation of slurry viscosity with time is considered,
there are two main effects on the slurry diffusion analysis. One effect is
that the grouting pressure obtained from the calculation result will be
obviously high, which will cause the insufficient filling to terminate the
grouting. The other effect is that the viscosity at different diffusion
positions will change uniformly with time. It will thus be difficult to
describe the true shape of the slurry-water interaction, and the au-
thenticity of the simulation will be reduced. Therefore, in this study a
relatively effective numerical calculation method for the dynamic water
grouting was focused on in order to reveal the retention law of slurry
under hydrodynamic conditions.
2
Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
Therefore, the SDS method was proposed in this study. This method
took the spatial–temporal evolution of slurry viscosity into account.
Based on the experimental results of the quick-setting slurry viscosity, a
non-Newtonian constitutive model was proposed in the SDS method.
The spatial–temporal evolution of the slurry viscosity was described by
tracking the diffusion position of the injected slurry at different times in
the calculation process. Based on the viscous incompressible multiphase
flow model, the slurry-water phase interface could be solved in the
fixed Euler grid using the volume of fluid method. The Navier-Stokes
equation was solved by the finite volume method. The time-dependent
model of the slurry viscosity threshold function was proposed. In ad-
dition, the fusion and modification of the slurry sequence was achieved
using the reconstruction of a physical parameter model in the slurry
solidification period, which effectively controlled the number of equa-
tions for the solutions. The SDS method proposed in this study can be
used to study the interaction between slurry in different orders and
between the slurry and water in the grouting process. This method will
be more applicable in the study of the diffusion behavior and the me-
chanism of the water plugging in dynamic water grouting.
2. Sequential diffusion and sedimentation model
The dynamic water grouting process involves many aspects, such as
the solutions for complex groundwater turbulence fields, slurry-water
phase interactions, interactions inside the slurry at different stages,
interactions between the fluids and the injected medium, and the
viscosity time-dependent characteristics of the slurry at different times.
Therefore, it is of great significance to establish a reasonable spatial-
temporal evolution model of slurry viscosity. In this study, the
groundwater was considered Newtonian fluid and the slurry diffusion
process conformed to the rheological properties of non-Newtonian
fluids. Based on the N-S equation, the basic mechanics law of fluid
motion was described, and the volume of fluid method was used to
describe the slurry diffusion in sequence according to the injection
time. The variation characteristics of the slurry-water phase interface
were obtained in real time, in order to study the slurry-water interac-
tion mechanics.
2.1. Mathematical model of slurry-water interaction
The diffusion process of the slurry could be described by the con-
tinuous equation and the momentum equation of an incompressible
fluid. The volume of fluid method only needs to solve a set of mo-
mentum equations in the calculation domain for a multiphase fluid
calculation and to share a flow field between different phases [6]. The
specific governing equation is expressed as follows:
The continuous equation can be expressed as:
∇ ·(ρU¯ ) = 0 (1)
The momentum equation is:
∂ (ρU¯ )
¯ ¯ ) = −∇P + ∇ [μ (∇U¯ + ∇U¯ T )] + ρg¯
+ ∇ ·(ρUU
∂t (2)
In the above formula, Ū is the fluid velocity vector, μ is the kine-
matic viscosity coefficient, P is the fluid pressure, ρ is the fluid density
[21].
The volume of fluid method was used to characterize the content of
the fluid in the calculation domain using the volume fraction of the
fluid. For the slurry system, when the volume fraction function was
F = 1, it meant that the fluid in the calculation domain was all in the
slurry phase. When F = 0, it meant that the fluid in the calculation
domain was all in the water phase. When 0 < F < 1, it meant that in
the calculation domain, the state of the slurry was a two-phase mixture.
The volume fraction function of the slurry could be defined as:
S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

⎧ 0 if the cell is filled with water

F= 0 < F < 1 if there is an interface within the cell
⎨ 1
⎩ if the cell is filled with slurry (3)

wherein the volume of the q th

phase fluid in any unit could be defined
as:

Vq = ∫V Fq dV (4)

For the grid element at the phase interface of the slurry-water, F was
integrated on the grid element and the volume fraction of the slurry and
water in the element could be further obtained.

∫V →∂x 3 Fw dV
F=
∫V →∂x 3 (Fw + Fs ) dV (5)

In the above formula, the subscripts w and s represent the water

phase and the slurry phase, respectively. The description of the phase
interface of the slurry and water was determined by calculating the
transport equation used to solve the volume fraction function. The
phase transport equation could be expressed as: Fig. 1. C-S slurry viscosity with time.

∂Fq
+ ∇ ·(Fq Uq) = 0(q = 1, 2, ⋯, n)
∂t (6)
The volume fraction of the base phase in the multiphase flow cal-
culation was usually not directly solved, but the following constraint
conditions were used. The slurry-water phase volume fraction was
constrained by the following constraint equation:
n viscosity was relatively slow and the slurry fluidity was better. During
∑ Fq = 1
1 (7)
The viscosity and density of the mixed fluid could be calculated by
weighting the fluid volume fraction in the following formula:
n
ρ (F ) = ∑ ρq Fq
1 (8)
n
μ (F ) = ∑ μq Fq
1 (9)
2.2. The time-dependent model of the slurry viscosity
In the analysis of the dynamic water grouting, the groundwater
pressure, grouting pressure, and slurry-water interaction belonged to
the mechanical category. The sedimentation and solidification of the
slurry was a chemical reaction process. Therefore, determining how to
convert the chemical characteristics of the slurry to the mechanical
parameters of the slurry-water interaction was the key point to re-
vealing the law of slurry diffusion under hydrodynamic conditions. In
order to describe the flow and solidification properties of the slurry, a
viscosity time-dependent function was usually introduced to char-
acterize the slurry. In the initial stage of slurry diffusion, the fluidity of
the slurry was better; that is, the initial viscosity of the slurry was
smaller. With the increase of the slurry diffusion distance, the slurry
viscosity increased gradually from the grouting pipe to the distal end of
slurry diffusion [35].
Li et al. [16] carried out a large number of experimental studies on
traditional cement slurry and cement-sodium silicate slurry, and they
found that the time-dependent characteristics of the viscosity of ce-
ment-sodium silicate (C-S) slurry were in accordance with the power
function distribution. The function expression could be represented as
μ (t ) = At B + C The time-dependent equation for ordinary cement
slurry viscosity could be expressed as an exponential function form:
η (t ) = ηP 0 ekt .
The time-dependent function of the slurry viscosity with different
C:S volume ratios is shown in the following figure (Fig. 1). The W/C
label in Fig. 1 stands for the volume ratio of water and cement.
Li et al. [16] further divided a slurry reaction process into three
stages according to the time-dependent characteristics of the quick-
setting slurry viscosity; that is, the low viscosity period, viscosity rising
period, and slurry solidification period. The specific time allocation is
shown in Table 1. At the low viscosity stage, the growth rate of the
the rising period, the viscosity of the slurry rose rapidly and the slurry
soon reached the initial setting state, showing a plastic state of solid-
liquid mixing. At this time, the slurry still had some fluidity, but the
slurry's fluidity began to decrease significantly. After entering the so-
lidification period, the slurry viscosity continued to increase, and the
slurry essentially solidified and lost its fluidity. There was no measured
data at this stage due to the limitations of the test conditions.
At the slurry solidification stage, the continuous increase of slurry
viscosity will cause unreasonable analysis for a slurry-water interaction
during a numerical calculation, which is also one of the main problems
faced in the slurry-water interaction analysis. Therefore, based on the
existing experimental data, in this study, full use was made of the slurry
time-dependent characteristics at the viscosity rising stage and the so-
lidification stage. As shown in Fig. 2, the time-dependent model of the
slurry viscosity threshold function was put forward. The C-S slurry that
was most widely used in practical grouting engineering was selected to
carry out numerical calculation research, and the research conclusion
was more representative and universal.
Therefore, a sequential diffusion and sedimentation model con-
sidering the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of slurry visc-
osity was proposed. The basic idea was to describe the time-dependent
characteristics of the slurry according to the real behavior of the slurry
diffusion process. The “sequential” term as used here actually re-
presents the time sequence of the slurry that was injected into the
fracture. There were two purposes for describing the slurry viscosity in
sequence. One purpose was to describe the behavior of the slurry
viscosity in a relatively real way as the time and space changed, and the
other purpose was to effectively describe the interaction law of slurry
under the influence of different viscosity growth times during the entire
grouting process.
Traditional C-S slurry was taken as an example in this study. The
treatment method was also applicable to other quick-setting slurry. The
slurry in the grouting pipe maintained an initial viscosity based on the
previous study [34], and the time-dependent function of the initial
viscosity of the slurry was as follows:

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S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

Table 1
The different stages of C-S slurry viscosity [16].
Water-cement ratio of cement grouting Volume ratio Low viscosity period Viscosity rise period Slurry solidification period

1:1 1:1 0–25 25–82 No measured data and can be regarded as solidification after 10 s
2:1 0–20 20–63
3:1 0–15 15–47
2:1 1:1 0–85 85–190
2:1 0–60 60–170

Fig. 2. Schematic diagrams of the cement-sodium silicate viscosity periods.

A (t - (i - 1)Tcon ) B + C t - (i - 1)Tcon < Tini Fig. 3. The time-dependent model of the slurry viscosity in the SDS method.
μi0 (t ) = ⎧ (i = 1, 2, ⋯, N )
⎨ μ
⎩ max t - (i - 1)Tcon ⩾ Tini
2
The grouting instantaneous rate could be expressed as v1 (t ) = q (t ) πrgro .
(10)
The effective diffusion volume of the single-sequence slurry was
T
wherein t is the instantaneous moment of grouting. The grouting time is ∫0 con q (t ) dt , when the time interval Tcon was chosen according to the
Ttot, which indicates the total time from the start of the grouting to the sensitivities of the parameters related to slurry solidification. Then, the
T
end. The diffusion time of the sorted slurry was Ti (i = 1, 2, 3…, N), cumulative grouting volume could be expressed as ∫0 tot q (t ) dt . Its re-
indicating the time of the ith sequence slurry starting from the injection lationship with other different sequences of slurry could be expressed
into the grouting pipe to the end of the grouting. as:
According to the viscosity rise period and the slurry solidification
period shown in Table 2, the viscosity threshold of the slurry solidifi- Ttot N -1 iTcon Ttot

cation period μmax was set. Based on the single-sequence slurry viscosity
time-dependent function, the solidify time in the slurry solidification
period was accordingly obtained from μmax as Tini. The slurry to be
injected into the fracture was divided into 1, 2, 3,… J… N−1, and N
order, and the diffusion times of the different sequential slurries were
T1, T2,…, TN. The sequential slurry was injected into the fracture at
intervals of Tcon. The effective diffusion time of the different sequential
slurry had the following relationship: Tn − Tm = (m − n) Tcon (m and n
represent the mth and nth sequential slurries, respectively). Any se-
quence of the slurry followed the respective viscosity time-dependent
function after grouting into the fracture. The entire time-dependent
model of the slurry viscosity is shown in Fig. 3 (taking the C-S slurry as
an example).
2.3. Implementation of the SDS method
The grouting pipe radius was rgro, the effective length of the
grouting pipe (distance from the grouting hole to the fracture medium
model) was Lp, and the grouting flow rate q (t ) was a function of time.
Q= ∫0 q (t ) dt = ∑i =1 ∫(i−1) T
⎛
⎝ con
q (t ) dt ⎞ +
⎠
∫(N −1) T con
q (t ) dt
(11)
The increase of the slurry sequences meant that there was an in-
crease in the number of equations. An unlimited increase of equations
would cause sharp increase of the calculation amount in the following
grouting. For the slurry-water interaction problem involved in the
study, the slurry solidification sequence fusion method was proposed.
The method effectively controlled the number of equations of the mo-
mentum equation and the transport equation, which significantly re-
duced the calculation amount and laid a foundation for the numerical
simulation at an engineering scale.
When Tcon was selected as the sequence interval to inject slurry, the
first sequential slurry was regarded as the basic term. It was judged
whether the time-varying characteristics of slurry viscosity reached
μmax as a criterion, and the slurry diffusion region for the viscosity
reaching μmax was obtained from the calculation area, which was Ω μmax .
The slurry diffusion time that first reached the viscosity threshold was
t j . The time of different sequential slurry reaching the solidification
period could be expressed as follows:

Table 2
Calculation parameters.
Types of slurry Water-cement ratio of cement Volume ratio Slurry viscosity function Density Grouting flow Injection time Hydrostatic pressure
grouting rate

C-S slurry 1:1 1:1 μ1 = 0.003182 t2.23 + 0.04 1400 (kg/ 15 L/min 60 s 0.2 kPa
2:1 μ2 = 0.0008427 t2.694 + 0.08 m3)
3:1 μ3 = 0.01864 t2.066 + 0.16

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S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

t j = Tini + j·Tcon (j = 1, 2, 3, ⋯, N − 1) i=n

(12) ρ j (F ) = ρwj (t ) Fwj + ∑i =1 ρsij (t ) Fsij (17)
Since the grouting time lasted until t j = Tini + j·Tcon , the fusion and
i=n
modification of the jth slurry sequence was carried out during the soli- μ j (F ) = μ wj (t ) Fwj + ∑i =1 μsij (t ) Fsij (18)
dification stage of the grouting. At that time, the sequences composition
of the slurry and the water in the injected medium could be expressed Therefore, based on the fusion and modification result of the slurry
as Ωwj− 1, Ωsj1− 1, Ωsj2− 1, Ωsj3− 1, ⋯, Ωsn
j−1
. The following is the jth slurry fusion in the solidification period, the initialization modification of the velo-
and modification method for the grouting process. The diffusion vo- city field and the pressure field of the slurry-water interaction could be
lume of the different sequential slurries could be expressed as: performed. In combination with Eqs. (1) and (2), the continuum
equation and the momentum equation were solved according to the re-
Ωsj1 = Ωsj1− 1 + Ωsj2− 1, Ωsj2 = Ωsj3− 1, Ωsj (n − 2) = Ωsj −(n1− 1) , initialized velocity and pressure fields.
The velocity field distribution in the calculated area was obtained.
Ωsj (n − 1) = Ωsn
j−1
(1 ⩽ j ⩽ n) (13) According to the calculation results, the transport equation was solved
Similarly, the inside of the calculation unit was expressed by the in order to construct the modified interface behavior of the slurry-water
slurry volume fraction. The state of the slurry-water mixture in the interaction process. The modified transport equation could be ex-
injected medium after the fusion and modification of the jth slurry se- pressed as:
quence could be expressed as: ∂Fwj
+ ∇ ·(U¯ j Fwj ) = 0
i=n ∂t (19)
Fwj + ∑i =1 Fsij = 1 (14)
∂Fsj1
For the region Ω μmax that reached the viscosity threshold after the + ∇ ·(U¯ j Fsj1) = 0
∂t (20)
fusion and modification of the slurry solidification period, the volume
of Ω μmax could be obtained by integrating F in the grid cell with Formula ∂Fsj2
(4). In the formula, j is the number of the fusion and modification of the + ∇ ·(U¯ j Fsj2) = 0
∂t (21)
slurry, and the relationship between the sequence of the initial slurry
and the modified sequence of fusion and modification can be expressed ……
as j = i−1. During the solidification period, the modified slurry dif- ∂Fsnj
fusion region Ω μmax would maintain the viscosity threshold μmax and + ∇ ·(U¯ j Fsnj ) = 0
∂t (22)
continue to diffuse and sediment until the next fusion and modification.
The solidified sequential slurry volume was The numerical calculation model proposed in this study was mainly
V (Ω μmax ) = ∑n = 0 ∫nT
j
con (
con (n + 1) T
)
q (t ) dt . Then the integrated volume frac- used for the dynamic water grouting of the fracture. Therefore, the
grouting final pressure was set to Pter and the outlet flow threshold was
tion of the slurry reaching the viscosity threshold could be expressed as:
set to Qplu. In the grouting process, the flow rate at the outlet of the

P=
j
(
∑n = 0 ∫nT
con
(n + 1) Tcon
q (t ) dt ) fracture and the grouting pressure in the grouting pipe were monitored
in real time, and it was judged whether they had reached Pter and Qplu.
Tini + j·Tcon
∫0
q (t ) dt (15) After continuous grouting for Tini + j·Tcon , the jth slurry fusion and the
modification were completed. If the grouting stopping condition was
The physical model of the slurry in the solidification stage was re-
not reached, the next grouting sequence continued. The sequential fu-
constructed by fusion and modification in different sequences. At the
sion and modification was repeated until the grouting termination
same time, the process was accompanied by the revision of the para-
conditions were met, further meeting the requirements of dynamic
meters of the slurry materials, such as the time-dependent character-
water plugging. The flowchart that describes the computational flow of
istics of the slurry viscosity and the change of the slurry density (in this
the SDS method is shown in Fig. 4.
study, the change of the slurry density in the diffusion process was
The basic governing equation of the slurry-water interaction was the
ignored). The modified viscosity time-dependent function was ex-
coupling of the continuous equation and the motion equation. In terms
pressed as μ Sjn (t ) , the different sequential slurry was expressed as Sn ,
of variables, it was shown that the velocity and pressure were coupled.
and j was the modification order of the slurry. In addition, Ω j re- The PISO algorithm (Pressure-Implicit with Splitting of Operators) [24]
presented the overall volume distribution state of the diffusion behavior had obvious advantages because the research in this study involved the
after the jth slurry fusion and modification, wherein solution of transient problems in the process of slurry-water interaction.
j
Ω = Ω μmax + Ω μ j (t ) . The specific modification of the slurry viscosity Therefore, the PISO method was used to solve the fluid pressur-
could be expressed as:
e–velocity coupling equation, and the volume force weighting method
μ Sj1 (t ) = μmax Ω j ∩ Ωsj1 and the second-order upwind method were used to discretize the
pressure and momentum phases [22]. Subsequently, a variable time
step and a fixed Courant number were considered for simulating the
A (t - (j + 1) Tcon ) B + C (Ω j ∩ Ωsj2) ∩ (Tini + jTcon ⩽
μ Sj2 (t ) ← μ Sj2− 1 (t ) = governing equations. When the residual of the velocity and momentum
t < Tini + (j + 1) Tcon ) reached 1 × 10−6, the calculation result could be convergent.

μ Sj3 (t ) ← μ Sj3− 1 (t ) = A (t - (j + 2)Tcon ) B + C (Ω j ∩ Ωsj3) 3. Validation and case study of the SDS method
∩ (Tini + jTcon ⩽ t < Tini + (j + 1) Tcon )
3.1. Validity verification of the fracture hydrostatic grouting
…
Previous researchers have carried out corresponding laboratory
μ SjA (t ) ← μ SjA (t ) = A (t -(j + An ) Tcon ) B + C (Ω j ∩ Ω sj An )
n n tests as well as theoretical and numerical experiments in static water
∩ (Tini + jTcon ≤ t < Tini + (j + 1) Tcon ) (16) conditions [26,34]. By deriving the spatial and temporal distribution
function of the viscosity in a slurry diffusion zone, Zhang et al. [34]
wherein An = ⎢ Tini ⎥, ⌊ ⌋ refers to the function of taking an integer down. established the horizontal fracture grouting diffusion theoretical model
⎣ Tcon ⎦
The modified fluid density and viscosity could be calculated by considering the time-dependent viscosity characteristics during con-
weighting the fluid volume fraction described in the previous section. stant grouting rate conditions. Then, they acquired the relationship

5
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 4. The flowchart of SDS method.
Fig. 5. Geometric model and mesh generation (a) mesh generation of the computational model (b) geometric model of grouting pipe.
between the grouting time, grouting pressure, and slurry diffusion ra-
dius when the C:S volume ratios were 1:1 and 1:2. In order to verify the
validity of the numerical calculation model established in this study,
the comparative verification analysis of the calculation results was
carried out. The numerical calculation model was set as shown in the
Fig. 5, and it was consistent with the previous model [35]. The model
size was set to 2 m × 2 m and the fracture width was 5 mm. The
grouting hole was located at the geometric center of the model and it
had a diameter of 5 cm. The left side of the model was the entrance
boundary and the right side was the outflow boundary. It should be
noted that the selection of all the above parameters was based on re-
commendations in the literature [34,35]. The C-S slurry was selected,
and the volume fraction ratios of the C:S were 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3. When
the setting time of the slurry was 60 s, the viscosity of the slurry could
reach 29.4 Pa s, 52.1 Pa s, and 88.1 Pa s. The calculation parameters are
shown in Table 2.
Fig. 6 shows the comparison with the experimental results (Exp.) of
6
Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
Zhang et al. [34] and presents the numerical simulation (Sim.) results.
The results of the comparison of the grouting pressure with time show
the following.
In the initial stage of grouting, for the C:S = 1:1 slurry, the calcu-
lation results of the grouting pressure were generally consistent before
the grouting lasted for 25 s. After that, the result calculated by the SDS
method was slightly lower than the test monitoring result and the
maximum error between the calculation result and the test result was
14.25%. The maximum error between the calculation result and the
calculated result [34] was 8.51%. The maximum error between the
calculation result and the simulated result [35] was 1.37%. In addition,
as shown in the Fig. 6, the variation of the grouting pressure was
generally consistent with the theoretical and numerical results (Ana.
and Sim.) of previous researchers, and the difference between the cal-
culated results was less than 15%.
The pressure distribution of the slurry diffusion process at a typical
time is shown in Fig. 7. The diffusion pressures at 15 s and 35 s were
S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

selected. The comparative analysis showed that the grouting pressure

Fig. 6. Comparison of grouting pressure at C:S = 1:1.
decreased gradually from near to far away from the grouting pipe and
the attenuation rate increased gradually. In the initial stage of grouting,
the diffusion pressure of the slurry was relatively gentle, showing a
linear attenuation trend. In the later stage of grouting, the diffusion
pressure of the slurry had obvious nonlinear characteristics. In the low
viscosity area close to the grouting pipe, the diffusion pressure of the
slurry was relatively gentle. In the high viscosity zone far from the
grouting pipe, the pressure gradient was much larger than that near the
grouting pipe and the slurry diffusion pressure decayed faster.
The grouting termination diffusion range of the numerical results
was generally consistent with the theoretical results. The diffusion
distances of the two typical moments were 0.49 m and 0.75 m. In ad-
dition, in the area near the grouting pipe, the pressure was slightly
higher than that of the previous theoretical and numerical results. In
the area far from the grouting pipe, the trend of pressure change was
generally consistent. This was mainly because the radial diffusion dis-
tance of the injected slurry decreased with the increase of the diffusion
distance of the slurry at the same sequence interval. When different
types of slurry were selected, the calculation results of the three
methods were essentially the same. At 15 s of grouting, the calculation
results of pressure were essentially in agreement with each other. The
grouting lasted for 35 s. The calculation result of the SDS method was
higher than the results of other calculation methods near the grouting
pipe. Outside the range of the diffusion radius of 0.5 m, the results were
consistent with the numerical calculation results.
For the quick-setting slurry with a volume ratio of 1:1, the com-
parison between the calculation results considering the spatial dis-
tribution inhomogeneity of the slurry viscosity and the conventional
calculation results is shown in Fig. 8. The results showed that there
were significant differences between the results in terms of the grouting
pressure and the slurry diffusion pressure. The difference of the final
grouting pressure could reach 23.5 times. Taking the 35 s in the
grouting process as an example, the internal pressure of the fracture in
the slurry diffusion process was also completely different. The pressure
attenuation rate of the traditional calculation method was the largest
near the grouting pipe and decreased with the increase of the diffusion
distance. In contrast, the SDS method took into account the spatial
variation of the slurry viscosity and the pressure attenuation rate in-
creases with the diffusion distance. Therefore, it was necessary to
consider the spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of the slurry
viscosity.
As shown in the Fig. 9, compared to the grouting pressure when the
ratios of the C:S volume fraction was 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3, the stronger the

Fig. 7. The spatial pressure distribution with different slurry and grouting time
(C: S = 1:1; Time = 15 s and 35 s).

Fig.8. The grouting pressure and spatial pressure distribution with different
methods.

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S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

Uniform
diffusion

Time:
1s
3s
10s
20s
Heterogeneous
30s
diffusion
40s
50s
57s

Fig. 11. The diffusion behavior of slurry (C:S = 1:1) with SDS method.

Fig. 9. The grouting pressure of three kinds of slurry with time. when the grouting time exceeded 20 s, the slurry diffusion behavior
began to show an irregular near-circular distribution, as shown in
Fig. 11. The slurry diffusion behavior could be better described by the
slurry viscosity time-dependent characteristics were, the faster the
SDS method proposed in this study. Therefore, the results were close to
grouting pressure changed and the larger the grouting pressure rising
the previous grouting test results. As shown in Fig. 10(a), it can be
rate was. For the quick-setting slurry with C:S volume ratios of 1:1 and
clearly seen that the slurry-water phase interface exhibited an irregular
1:2, the difference of the grouting pressure in the initial stage was
distribution behavior, which became more obvious with the grouting
small. Due to the lower viscosity and better fluidity of the slurry, the
time. In addition, the diffusion behavior was essentially the same for
upward trend of the grouting pressure coincided during the first 30 s,
the different slurries under hydrostatic conditions. The stronger the
and the final grouting pressure was differentiated by 35.6%. For the C:S
slurry viscosity time-dependent characteristics were, the more irregular
volume ratio of 1:3, due to the fastest slurry viscosity increase, the
the shape of the slurry became at the late stage of grouting.
grouting pressure at the initial stage of grouting showed significant
The conventional calculation results without consideration of the
differences. The rate of rise was significantly greater than that of the
spatial distribution inhomogeneity of the slurry viscosity are shown in
other slurries, and the grouting end pressure was 3.41 times and 2.19
Fig. 10(b) [35]. Until the end of grouting, the slurry diffusion behavior
times that of the other two grouting pressures.
always maintained a regular circular distribution, which demonstrated
As shown in Fig. 10(a), it was difficult to maintain uniform diffusion
the applicability of the SDS method in terms of the slurry-water inter-
behavior because of the complexity of the slurry diffusion process.
action and the fact that it was necessary to consider the spatial dis-
In order to analyze the variation behavior of the slurry-water phase
tribution inhomogeneity of the slurry viscosity.
interface more clearly, as shown in Fig. 11, only the slurry-water phase
Based on the above analysis, the overall diffusion behavior and the
interface was retained in the analysis of the SDS method simulation
grouting pressure variation were similar to those of the previous ex-
results. The volume fraction shown in Fig. 11 was set to 0.5. In the
perimental and numerical results. The results indicated that the SDS
initial stage of slurry diffusion, the slurry diffusion behavior for 0–10 s
method was stable and feasible in the fracture medium, and that it
generally showed a regular circular distribution. The calculation results
could be used to carry out the analysis of the dynamic water grouting of
of the SDS method at this stage were generally consistent with the
the fracture under different conditions.
previous experimental results. In the middle and later stages of grouting

Fig. 10. The results of experiment and traditional calculation methods [34,35].

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S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

Table 3
Calculation parameters in dynamic water grouting.
Types of slurry Water-cement ratio of cement grouting Volume ratio Slurry viscosity function density Grouting flow rate Dynamic water flow velocity

C-S slurry 1:1 1:1 μ1 = 0.003182 t 2.23

+ 0.04 3
1400 (kg/m ) 0.3 m/s 0.6 m/s
0.7 m/s
0.8 m/s

Fig. 12. Slurry diffusion behavior at the initial stage of dynamic water grouting.

3.2. The diffusion behavior analysis of the dynamic water grouting
Previous theories and numerical calculation methods could meet the
requirements of slurry diffusion analysis in smooth plate models under
hydrostatic conditions. However, the description of slurry diffusion
behavior under dynamic water conditions was greatly limited, and
there were few reports on this kind of problem. The SDS method pro-
posed in this study considered the spatial-temporal evolution char-
acteristics of the slurry viscosity and it could the analysis of the slurry
diffusion process under different dynamic water conditions. Therefore,
the calculation of the slurry diffusion law for different flow rates of the
smooth plate fracture was carried out. The basic parameters were se-
lected as shown in Table 3. The model size was set to 3 m × 6 m and
the fracture width was 5 mm. The volume ratio of C:S was 1:1 and the
initial dynamic water flow velocities of the fracture were 0.6 m/s,
0.7 m/s, and 0.8 m/s. Additionally, a constant grouting rate of 33.9 L/
min was maintained in this study.
According to the calculation results, it can be seen that the diffusion
behavior of the slurry in the fracture conformed to the basic char-
acteristics in the previous experimental research. In the initial stage of

9
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 13. The grouting pressure with time at different velocities.
Fig. 14. The pressure distribution of the axial line under different hydro-
dynamic velocities.
grouting, the counter-flow diffusion phenomenon occurred and the
asymmetric elliptical diffusion behavior appeared before the diffusion
extended to the fracture boundary. As shown in Fig. 12 (taking 0.6 m/s
as an example), the loss of the slurry first occurred in the initial stage of
grouting, for which the diffusion time of the slurry was shorter and the
viscosity was lower. Moreover, with the slurry diffusion, the cross-
section on both sides became smaller and the velocity increased gra-
dually. Because of the obstruction of the sedimentary slurry on the front
side and the low viscosity of the slurry near the grouting pipe, the slurry
was further lost under the scour of the larger flow velocity. This was
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Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
Fig. 15. The slurry diffusion behavior at different hydrodynamic velocities
[15,18].
generally consistent with the experimental phenomena described by
previous researchers [34].
The monitoring results of the grouting pressure in the slurry diffu-
sion process are shown in Fig. 13. Under the different water flow
conditions, the change of grouting pressure was still characterized by
slow growth at the initial stage of grouting and fast growth at the later
stage of grouting. Compared with the results under hydrostatic condi-
tions, the grouting pressure increased significantly in the later stage of
dynamic water grouting. For different flow velocities, the maximum
rising gradient of the grouting pressure could reach 175 kPa/s. In ad-
dition, the higher the velocity of flowing water was, the greater the
initial grouting pressure was, the greater the growth rate was, and the
shorter the time to reach the sudden increase of grouting pressure was.
In addition, during the period of the grouting pressure surge, the
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 16. The counter-flow diffusion distance with the grouting time.
pressure fluctuated significantly, and the larger the flow velocity was,
the more obvious the phenomenon was. The same grouting rate was
maintained before the grouting lasted for 33 s. The difference in the
grouting pressure between the three was small, and the change curve
essentially coincided. After that, the grouting pressure of the 0.8 m/s
case study first increased significantly and then suddenly increased at
44 s, while the grouting pressure of the other two cases increased
sharply at 49 s and 51 s.
As shown in Fig. 14, the fluid pressures at the vertical survey line
and the transverse survey line were analyzed at the typical times (25 s,
35 s, 45 s) of the grouting process. Due to the action of hydrodynamic
water, the pressure distributions in two directions were slightly dif-
ferent. The pressure distribution showed a trend of gradual attenuation
from near to far away from the grouting pipe, which had obvious non-
linear characteristics. In the low viscosity area near the grouting pipe,
the attenuation of the diffusion pressure was relatively gentle. In the
location far from the grouting pipe, the pressure gradient was much
larger than that near the grouting pipe because it was located in the
high viscosity region of the slurry, and the pressure attenuation rate of
the grouting diffusion was larger. For the condition of a constant ve-
locity boundary, the attenuation gradient of the transverse pressure
distribution was small and it was maintained at a relatively high level.
Moreover, with the grouting time, the pressure increased as a whole.
As shown in Fig. 15, the region with a slurry volume fraction of 0.5
was extracted as the slurry-water phase interface position. The fol-
lowing could be seen from the variation of the interface with time.
In the initial and intermediate stages of grouting, the slurry diffu-
sion behavior was similar to the actual grouting process. This presented
a distinct asymmetric elliptical distribution in the initial stage of
grouting [15], and the larger the flow rate was, the smaller the aspect
ratio was. For the condition of a constant grouting injection rate, the
smaller the flow velocity was, the shorter the time for the slurry to
reach the lateral boundary was. Finally, the slurry moved towards the
outlet along the solid wall boundary.
The slurry-water phase interface in the counter-flow diffusion re-
gion was relatively fine, indicating that the slurry counter-flow diffu-
sion tended to displace diffusion. The slurry-water phase interface was
obvious, showing a sudden change state. The slurry-water phase
Table 4
Four levels of influencing factors used in the study.
Level Volume ratio Slurry viscosity function The fracture width-A The maximal viscosity μ max -B
1 1:2 μ2 = 0.0008427 t2.694 + 0.08 0.07 m 200
2 0.09 m 250
3 0.11 m 300
4 0.13 m 350
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Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
interface in the down-flow diffusion region was wider and the slurry-
water mixing region was larger at the front of the slurry diffusion,
which was in good agreement with the previous experimental results
shown in Fig. 15(d). For this calculation model, the high viscosity re-
gion of the slurry was mainly concentrated at the front of the diffusion
region. Its viscous time-varying time was longer and its fluidity was
poor. However, the closer the region was to the grouting pipe, the
shorter the time of viscosity growth was, and the stronger the slurry
fluidity was. After approximately 40 s, the slurry on both sides of the
slurry diffusion zone began to gradually experience loss, and the re-
lative flow velocity was obviously higher than that of the slurry at the
end of the down-flow direction.
According to the grouting diffusion theory and the previous re-
search [18], when the grouting rate and the flow velocity were de-
termined, the variation of the diffusion distance of the slurry with time
was closely related to the time-dependent characteristics of the visc-
osity. Therefore, the variation of the counter-flow diffusion distance of
the C-S slurry with time could be considered to be in accordance with
the law of power function, which could be expressed as follows:
L (ζ , t ) = f (ζ ) t A (23)
wherein ζ is the ratio of the grouting rate to the water flow rate,
which can be expressed as ζ = vs vw = q vw bw . q is the grouting rate
(unit: m3/s), b is the fracture opening degree (unit: m), and w is the
fracture width (unit: m). The counter-flow diffusion distance with
grouting time is shown in Fig. 16. The variation of the counter-flow
diffusion distance of the C-S slurry with time could be considered to be
in accordance with the law of the power function, and the fitting results
were highly consistent.
In summary, the counter-flow diffusion distance of the C-S slurry
could be expressed by the formula:
L = (0.1515ζ + 0.0172) t 0.7 (24)
In addition, it can be seen from the down-flow diffusion behavior in
Fig. 14 that when the grouting continued to 45 s, the slurry viscosity
reached 15.5 Pa s near the slurry diffusion front end, which was away
from the grouting pipe. During 41–45 s, the effective diffusion distance
in the down-flow direction was 0.1 m, only accounting for 1.67% of the
fracture downstream length. Obviously, for the calculation model of
this study, this showed that the slurry near the slurry-water phase in-
terface gradually lost its fluidity in the down-flow direction with hy-
drodynamic conditions. This accomplished the local filling of fracture
and further illustrated the rationality of simplifying the threshold of the
slurry viscosity in the SDS method in this study.
3.3. Sensitivity of the parameters
Due to the complexity of dynamic water grouting, the solidification
parameters were difficult to obtain, so the sensitivity of the parameters
related to slurry diffusion behavior and the solidification needed to be
discussed in detail. In this study, the fracture width, the dynamic water
flow velocity, the grouting flow rate, and the properties of the slurry
were selected as the four factors that affected the dynamic grouting in
order to study its sensitivity to the water plugging rate. The specific
parameter settings are shown in Table 4.
Sui et al. [26] put forward the concept of the sealing effect
Dynamic water flow velocity-C Grouting flow rate-D
Pa s 0.2 m/s 0.10 m/s
Pa s 0.3 m/s 0.12 m/s
Pa s 0.4 m/s 0.14 m/s
Pa s 0.5 m/s 0.16 m/s
S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

Table 5
Results of orthogonal tests.
Grout type The fracture width-A The maximal viscosity μ max -B Dynamic water flow velocity-C Grouting flow rate-D TASE (s) DWPT (s)

1 (A1B1C1D1) 0.07 m 200 Pa s 0.2 m/s 0.10 m/s 43.50 78.40

2 (A1B2C2D2) 0.07 m 250 Pa s 0.3 m/s 0.12 m/s 48.60 82.34
3 (A1B3C3D3) 0.07 m 300 Pa s 0.4 m/s 0.14 m/s 47.50 81.12
4 (A1B4C4D4) 0.07 m 350 Pa s 0.5 m/s 0.16 m/s 46.20 79.80
5 (A2B1C2D3) 0.09 m 200 Pa s 0.3 m/s 0.14 m/s 61.22 115.10
6 (A2B2C1D4) 0.09 m 250 Pa s 0.2 m/s 0.16 m/s 45.50 84.45
7 (A2B3C4D1) 0.09 m 300 Pa s 0.5 m/s 0.10 m/s 98.35 171.70
8 (A2B4C3D2) 0.09 m 350 Pa s 0.4 m/s 0.12 m/s 80.40 141.10
9 (A3B1C3D4) 0.11 m 200 Pa s 0.4 m/s 0.16 m/s 94.05 169.10
10 (A3B2C4D3) 0.11 m 250 Pa s 0.5 m/s 0.14 m/s 108.90 190.21
11 (A3B3C1D2) 0.11 m 300 Pa s 0.2 m/s 0.12 m/s 79.70 144.14
12 (A3B4C2D1) 0.11 m 350 Pa s 0.3 m/s 0.10 m/s 111.75 199.75
13 (A4B1C4D2) 0.13 m 200 Pa.s 0.5 m/s 0.12 m/s 164.30 277.80
14 (A4B2C3D1) 0.13 m 250 Pa s 0.4 m/s 0.10 m/s 173.30 268.32
15 (A4B3C2D4) 0.13 m 300 Pa s 0.3 m/s 0.16 m/s 145.00 179.15
16 (A4B4C1D3) 0.13 m 350 Pa s 0.2 m/s 0.14 m/s 89.50 154.20

TASE-Time to achieve 90% sealing effect.

DWPT-Dynamic water plugging time.

Fig. 17. Variation curve of the flow rate.

according to a water plugging situation for the same grouting condition. effect (TASE) and the critical time of dynamic water plugging (DWPT)
Therefore, this research used the time of the dynamic water reduction were selected to evaluate the influences of different factors on the dy-
and the critical time of dynamic water plugging as the parameter sen- namic water grouting. The results of the orthogonal tests were as shown
sitivity analysis index. in Table 5.

Qint − Qend
SE = × 100% 3.3.1. Effect on the flow rate and pressure distribution
Qint (25)
As shown in the Fig. 17, the dynamic water flow rate also had a
The grouting plugging time could fully reflect the diffusion beha- short stable stage at the initial grouting and then started to decrease
vior, solidification behavior, and dynamic water plugging effect in significantly. The decrease rate showed a trend of first increasing and
dynamic water grouting. Therefore, the time to achieve a 90% sealing then decreasing. The smaller the fracture width, the easier it was to

12
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 18. Variation curve of the diffusion pressure of slurry at the bottom of fissure.
achieve dynamic water plugging, and the differences of the dynamic
water plugging times for different conditions were small. The larger the
fracture width, the more difficult it was to achieve effective plugging
under the same grouting conditions. In addition, the larger the fracture
width, the more greater the effect on the time of dynamic water plug-
ging was, and the greater the difference of slurry diffusion behavior
between conditions.
The pressure monitoring point at the bottom of the fracture under
the grouting pipe was used for data analysis, as shown in Fig. 18. Due to
the influence of the fracture width, there were different rising trends.
For the A1 and A2 cases with small fracture widths, the grouting
pressure rise trend was relatively singular, and the pressure rose sharply
after the fracture was completely plugged. For the A3 and A4 cases with
large fracture widths, the grouting pressure showed an obvious staged
upward trend. When the slurry diffused to the monitoring point, the
pressure changed significantly. Similarly, when the fracture tended to
be plugged, the grouting pressure suddenly increased.
3.3.2. The results of sensitivity analysis
The result of orthogonal test is shown in the Fig. 19. The parameter
sensitivity analysis showed that the fracture width had the greatest
impact on the slurry diffusion and plugging, followed by the flow ve-
locity and the grouting rate, and the slurry viscosity threshold had the
least impact. With the increase of the flow velocity and the decrease of
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Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
the grouting rate, the plugging time increased. When the viscosity
threshold exceeded 200 Pa s for the grouting conditions in this study,
the viscosity threshold had the least influence on the diffusion behavior
of the slurry, the reduction rate of the dynamic water, and the plugging
time. The process was usually accompanied by large grouting pressure
and dynamic water flow rate changes. Therefore, it showed that the
viscosity threshold theory proposed by SDS was reasonable.
4. Further application and discussion of the SDS method
4.1. Further application
The larger the fracture width was, the more complex the physical
model of the injected medium was [40], and the more obvious the
advantages of the SDS method were. The accurate characterization of
large water-dissolving fractures in complex karst areas is still a difficult
problem in the field of geophysical exploration. In this study, the
random power spectrum theory and the Fourier transform method were
used to generate rough fracture surface with a fractal dimension of 2.2.
The percentage of the displacement of the fracture surface was 0.6%.
The contact model of the rough fracture surface based on this is shown
in Fig. 20. The fracture contact area was simplified as a closed
boundary. The model size was set to 5 m × 12 m, and the average
initial fracture opening was specified as 0.09 m. The volume ratio of C:S
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 19. Response graphs for main effects.
was 1:1. The fracture entrance was a constant pressure boundary and
the initial outlet flow rate was 0.154 m3/s. In addition, the constant
grouting velocity was 0.35 m/s.
Fig. 21 shows the variation of the grouting pressure with time and
the complete filling distribution of the slurry in the fracture for hy-
drodynamic conditions. The grouting pressure showed a significant
Fig. 20. The model size of the wide fracture and the local contact area.
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Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
correlation with the slurry diffusion behavior according to the variation
of the grouting pressure, which was divided into six stages. The slurry
diffusion behavior at the corresponding time is shown in Fig. 21.
Overall, the pressure rose smoothly in the initial stage of slurry diffu-
sion. During the slurry diffusion period of 182.1−284.1 s, the grouting
pressure appeared in a short-term stable phase. It can be seen from the
slurry diffusion behavior that the slurry reached the left boundary and
gradually formed a semi-closed area. Then the grouting pressure rise
rate was obviously reduced in the period of 340.1−437.2 s. At this
time, the slurry diffusion range touched the right boundary, and the
shape of the single over-flow channel continuously adjusted. When the
grouting continued to 480.2 s, the grouting pressure increased sig-
nificantly, and the grouting pressure increased more when the cross-
section was close to complete plugging.
Fig. 22 shows the true slurry diffusion and sedimentation behavior
in the fracture, which was different from that shown in Fig. 21. In the
initial stage of grouting, it can be seen from the volume fraction dis-
tribution that the wide fracture near the grouting hole was not com-
pletely filled. Due to incomplete filling, the local equivalent hydraulic
width of the fracture became smaller and the groundwater passage near
the boundary of the model became smaller, further increasing the
groundwater velocity. As shown in Fig. 22(a), the local obvious vortex
movement appeared when the grouting continues to 64.3 s. The volume
fraction of the grout in this area was maintained between 55% and
75%, and the direct contact area between the groundwater and the
sedimentation of the slurry increased significantly. Moreover, the slurry
sediment on the lower surface of the fracture was relatively thin and the
most direct influence was that the loss rate of slurry in this area in-
creased correspondingly. As shown in Fig. 22(b), part of the slurry was
lost in clusters along with the water flow when the grouting lasted for
172.3 s.
In addition, as shown in Fig. 23, with the decrease of the water flow
of the right flow section, the velocity changed dramatically and the
groundwater flow path changed greatly. When the grouting continued
to 193.1 s, the recirculation vortex motion area that formed on the right
side of the fracture inlet gradually increased. The flow line gradually
changed from flowing through the narrow channel on the right to
flowing back to the entrance. This phenomenon became more and more
obvious with the grouting. When the grouting continued to 299.5 s, the
moving water in the fracture tended to be blocked. The groundwater
S. Li, et al.
Fig. 21. The grouting pressure and corresponding slurry diffusion behavior with the grouting time.
gradually failed to diffuse through the fracture to the outlet and it could
only form circular movement near the entrance of the fracture.
Fig. 24 shows the volume flow rate of the outlet during the entire
process of dynamic grouting. In the initial stage of grouting, since there
was no slurry sedimentation inside the wide fracture, the volume flow
rate had a short stable period. After 6.5 s, there was already a clear
slurry sedimentary area inside the fracture. At that time, the fracture
outlet volume flow rate began to decrease. Because the grouting pipe
was in the middle of the fracture width, after the grouting lasted for
44 s, the stable sedimentation position of the slurry could completely
fill the fracture of larger width near the grouting pipe, and the rate of
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Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
the flow reduction at the outlet essentially reached the maximum value.
After 70 s, the decrease velocity of the outlet flow rate descended a
small amount and it was maintained at a relatively stable rate. Up to
140 s, the outlet volume flow rate reduced to 0.032 m3/s, and the water
reduction rate reached 78.6%. This process could generally correspond
to the flow rate reduction stage under the influence of the semi-closed
area. After the grouting lasted until 172.3 s, the grouting process en-
tered the stage of flow velocity reduction when the hydrodynamic
water was close to plugging. At that time, the reduction rate of the
outlet volume flow rate decreased significantly. Later, the outlet flow
rate was reduced to 0.0027 m3/s at around 430 s, and the water
S. Li, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497

Fig. 22. Slurry diffusion and sedimentation behavior during grouting.

Fig. 23. The distribution of the flow line at the entrance with the grouting time.

reduction rate reached 98.2%, essentially achieving the complete

Fig. 24. The outlet volume flow rate with the grouting time.
plugging of the hydrodynamic water. Compared to the diffusion beha-
vior of the slurry at the time, it can be seen that the right side slurry
touched the right boundary.
The width of the diversion channel varied due to the different
openings of the wide fractures. The effect of the quick-setting slurry on
the complex fracture system showed the trend of “diffusion along ele-
vation, blocking the large fracture, avoiding the small fracture, and
finally squeezing and sealing the fracture.” That is, the slurry first chose
the diffusion region with lower elevation. If it was the same elevation,
the diffusion was preferentially spread to a larger gap width. With the
increase of the grouting pressure, the slurry deposit thickness at the
location with the larger fracture width increased gradually, and small
fractures were continuously filled. Finally, the fractures with the hy-
drodynamic condition were completely blocked due to the continuous
increase of the grouting pressure. However, due to the highly time-
dependent viscosity of the quick-setting slurry, the higher elevation

16
S. Li, et al.
area was prone to forming a slurry diffusion blind zone.
4.2. Limitations and discussions
Sui et al. [26] pointed out that a fracture medium has complexity,
which is even more complicated when considering dynamic water
grouting. This makes it very difficult to carry out experimental in-
vestigation. Therefore, it is undeniable that the diffusion and plugging
of dynamic water grouting is very complex in an actual engineering
project. This research was based on the simplified assumption above,
and the simulation of the dynamic water grouting process was
achieved. Although there were some limitations, it provided an effec-
tive method for future research. It can also be seen that SDS method is
feasible for carrying out an engineering scale dynamic grouting simu-
lation. The slurry solidification sequence fusion method could reduce
the number of equations and the computational time, but the capture
accuracy of the phase interface still needs to be further optimized.
In addition, it is worth pointing out that the sedimentation and
solidification of the slurry was a chemical reaction process. At present,
this type of complex chemical reaction is usually described by viscosity
[16,35,36,37], and the chemical reaction process is indirectly con-
sidered in the calculation model. Therefore, a time-dependent function
of viscosity was used to describe the flow and solidification properties.
For the wide fracture, the method ignored the factors that had little
influence on the diffusion of the slurry, such as lithology and tem-
perature. For the small fracture, the pressure in the later stage of
grouting was larger. At that time, the influence of the slurry-rock
coupling on the diffusion range could not be ignored. This will be the
focus of further research.
Finally, the construction of a multi-scale fracture model is still a
frontier problem in the field of geophysical exploration, and the accu-
rate description of the spatial distribution of fractured media needs to
be further improved. However, the research results of the SDS method
in complex contact fracture media provide a theoretical basis for
studying the law of slurry diffusion with complex formation conditions.
5. Conclusions
At present, there is still no reasonable and effective slurry-water
interaction analysis method for revealing the diffusion law of quick-
setting slurry in dynamic water. In this study, an SDS method con-
sidering the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of slurry visc-
osity was proposed. The main conclusions obtained through numerical
calculations were:
(1) Based on the viscous incompressible multiphase flow model, the
time-dependent model of the slurry viscosity threshold function was
proposed. The fusion and the modification of the slurry sequence
were achieved using the reconstruction of a physical parameter
model in the slurry solidification period, which effectively con-
trolled the number of equations for the solutions. Thus, the grouting
diffusion of quick-setting slurry in dynamic water could be ana-
lyzed.
(2) The validity and the necessity of the SDS method under hydrostatic
conditions were verified by comparing with previous laboratory
tests, numerical calculation results, and results without considera-
tion of the spatial distribution inhomogeneity of the slurry visc-
osity. Additionally, the slurry diffusion process for different flow
velocities was analyzed and the effects of the flow velocities on the
change of the grouting pressure, the counter-flow diffusion distance
of the slurry, and the down-flow diffusion behavior were explored.
(3) The SDS method described the slurry diffusion and sedimentation
behavior in fracture dynamic water realistically and realized the
visualization of the grouting diffusion process. Meanwhile, its ap-
plicability and feasibility of studying grouting slurry diffusion me-
chanism in wide fracture dynamic water on engineering scale were
17
Computers and Geotechnics 122 (2020) 103497
verified.
(4) It is expected that the SDS method can provide both theoretical
support and practical references to the grouting test and en-
gineering practice, as it lowers down the test cost, optimizes the
grouting design scheme, and guides rational slurry selection.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Shucai Li: Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Dongdong Pan:
Data curation, Writing - original draft. Zhenhao Xu: Methodology,
Conceptualization, Validation, Writing - review & editing. Peng Lin:
Visualization, Investigation. Yichi Zhang: Validation, Visualization.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the financial support from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 51879153),
the Natural Science Foundation of Shanodong Province (Grant No.:
ZR201808080053), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(Grant No. 2019M662361).
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