Abstract:
Several countries utilize the sedimentary soft rock for nuclear waste disposal because it has a
potential to use as a host rock. Therefore, the analytical researches on the unsaturated flow of this type of
rocks have been increased to assure the safety of the disposal. In this study, the applicability of three
models; Brooks-Corey/Burdine (BC), Campbell (CB) and van Genuchten (VG) that have been used
commonly for soil was studied, by applying these to one dimensional flow induced by evaporation in six
disk shaped soft rock samples. The best parameters in each model were inversely estimated by adopting
genetic algorithm (GA). It was clearly found that the best parameters in BC and CB models can be easily
estimated and the measured evaporation change could be well analyzed. However, the parameters in VG
model could not be estimated easily. It was found that BC and CB models are more robust than the VG
model for the analysis of unsaturated flow in soft rock.
