Aquifer Properties &

Darcys Law
Outline:
Porosity, permeability. Darcy s law.

So What?
Need to understand how groundwater flows to Determine good quality aquifers
Assess risk & create schemes for contaminant cleanup
hydraulic conductivity Z contaminant concentration
high

Z Y
low

Components of Runoff
Pathways

Groundwater Hydraulics
Water is (usually) transmitted through the pore space of the sediment or rock, not as an underground river A geologic feature that readily transmits and stores water is called an aquifer. A feature of low permeability is an aquitard, aquiclude, or a confining unit.

Interception Evaporation Transpiration Surface Runoff Direct Precipitation

Soil flow (aka throughflow)

River Groundwater Flow

Porosity
The ratio of the volume of open space to total material:

Porosity
Porosity is a function of
Grain size, packing, grain-size distribution, grain shape The compactness of their arrangement The weight of any overlying rock or sediment The extent to which the pores become filled with the cement that holds the particles together
Cubic Packing n = 0.48 Rhombohedral Packing n = 0.26 Well sorted Poorly sorted

n=

V pore Vtotal

Air

Soil Water Soil Grains

Total volume of rock = pore volume + solid volume n is dimensionless

Take 2
Which size has highest porosity?

How much water is available?

A sample of consolidated material.

Some instrumentation.

Saturate the sample to some level

Specific Yield
We can t recover all water from pore space Specific yield: amount of water that will be drained by gravity Specific retention: amount of water that will be held
Let the sample drain to a new level

n = S y + Sr

Capillarity
Capillarity in porous media is affected by two forces:
Note: While Sy is often the dominant storage mechanism for unconfined aquifers, other storage mechanisms for confined aquifers will be discussed later.

Cohesion between the water molecules, and Adhesion between the liquid and the walls of the pore

Also: polar liquids exhibit capillary action when in contact with charged surfaces.

Pressure in the subsurface

Pabsolute(fluid)= Phydrostatic + Patmospheric Phydrostatic= rgh

Permeability (k)
The ease with which water can flow through rock

r = density of water g = gravity h = height of water

Pabsolute = 90 kPa

(-) tension

P < 0 Water table: where liquid Pabsolute = 100 kPa P = 0 pressure is equal to atmospheric Pabsolute = 110 kPa P > 0
(+) compression

Depends on:
the size of the pores the degree to which the pores are interconnected

Same Porosity Is porosity an indicator of permeability?

0.01mm 0.1mm

Low Permeability

High Permeability

Vesicular Basalt

Clay

Flow Properties
Permeability (k), with dimensions of area [L2], depends only on the properties of the porous medium: k a d2

high porosity, but low permeability

Hydraulic Conductivity (K), with dimensions of velocity [LT-1] depends on the properties of both the porous medium and water:

Sand
where k r g m is is is is

K=

k!g

porous and permeable

intrinsic permeability [L2] density of the fluid [M/L3] acceleration of gravity [L/T2] dynamic viscosity [M/LT]

K vs k
Things that affect K but not k: Temperature Solute concentration Multiple fluids Measures of K and k: K m/s, cm/s, ft/d, m/d, gpd/ft2 k m2, cm2, darcies For water at 20oC, a k of one darcy is about equivalent to a K of 1 m/d.

Clay

Silt

Sediments have wide range of values for K (m/s) Clay 10-11 10-8 Silt 10-8 10-6 Silty Sand 10-7 10-5 Sands 10-5 10-3 Gravel 10-4 10-1

Sand

Gravel

K Distributions
x 10-6

How do we estimate K or k?
1. Grain size analyses: small sample 2. Permeameter: measure in lab, small sample 3. Pumping or slug tests: in situ larger scale measurement 4. Tracer tests

Frequency

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

Frequency
-9

-8

-7

-6

-5

Hydraulic Conductivity (m/s)

Log Hydraulic Conductivity

Hydraulic conductivity is often log-normally distributed Ranges of 4 or 5 orders of magnitude for the same geologic unit are commonplace

Often knowing K to an order of magnitude is satisfactory and may be all that is obtainable within temporal and financial constraints

Take 5
You re going to calculate K from a constant-head permeameter (a Darcy apparatus). What measurements do you need?

Time to experiment

Darcy's Data:
Slope of line = K
Q/A

K/k controls
Property
hydraulic conductivity

K=

k!g

k
increase increase -

K
decrease increase increase increase increase (due to r &m)

m" g r

Dh/DL

Q h !h = !K 2 1 A l2 ! l1

Darcy showed that Q is: In direction of decreasing water level Proportional to Dh, given L fixed Inversely proportional to L, given Dh fixed Independent of porosity!!!

grain size sorting temp

K =k

Viscosity () resistance of the fluid to flow Vegetable oil has a higher viscosity than water:

!g

Take 5
Estimate hydraulic conductivities

water ~ 1 cP oil ~ 50 cP higher lower K SAME k!

Viscosity is a function of temperature Increase the temperature, viscosity decreases (more fluid)

Take Home Messages

Porosity is not necessarily correlated to permeability Permeability is dependent only on the medium, whereas hydraulic conductivity is also dependent on the fluid; both control flow Darcys law!