A New Software to Model Earth Fissure Caused by Extensive Aquifer Exploitation and its Application to the Guangming Village Case, China

Earth fissures accompanying anthropogenic land subsidence due to excessive aquifer exploitation create significant geohazards in China. Numerical models represent a unique scientific approach to predict the generation and development of earth fissures. However, the common geomechanical simulators fail to reproduce fissure development because they cannot be effectively applied in discontinuous mechanics. An innovative modelling approach developed recently is applied to develop a software to simulate fissure development. The pressure changes are used as forcing factors in a 3D geomechanical model, which combines Finite Elements and Interface Elements to simulate the deformation of the continuous aquifer system and the generation and sliding/opening of earth fissures. The approach has been applied to simulate the earth fissures at Guangming Village in Wuxi, China with land subsidence of more than 1 m caused by the overexploitation of the second confined aquifer. The modelling results high...