Finite element modeling of drainage holes and free surface within the complex seepage control structures: an overview

Seepage control plays a critical role in the stability and security of geotechnical engineering. Finite element modeling has been widely employed for solving these complex seepage control structural problems over the past few decades to overcome the limitations of using theoretical analysis and experimental methods in dealing with these sorts of problems. The critical technical problems of numerical simulation of complex seepage control structures are the effective simulation drainage holes and the seepage free surface’s accurate location. The main purpose of this work is to overview recent developments of finite element modeling associated with simulating drainage holes and locating the free surface.