CE336: Water Resources Engineering

Shikha Rahman CalPoly at SLO February 20 & 27, 2013

Learning Objectives

Define terminology related to groundwater hydraulics. State Darcys Law. Apply Darcys Law to groundwater flows. Derive & Apply equations describing steadystate flow in Confined Aquifer. Derive & Apply equations describing steadystate flow in Unconfined Aquifer.
Mays 6.1 Groundwater Concepts Mays 6.4.2 Confined Aquifers Mays 6.4.3 Unconfined Aquifers

Readings:

Groundwater

Subsurface storage of water. A major source of water supply, especially in arid or semiarid areas where surface water is limited. Because groundwater is filtered by flow through the formation, it generally requires little treatment for use as a water supply. The velocity of groundwater flow generally less than 1 meter Reynolds number is usually less groundwater flow is nearly always is small and is per day. The than one, and laminar.

Groundwater

Groundwater: Vadose Zone

Vadose zone is the shallow partially saturated zone above the water table. Because the zone is partially saturated, capillary forces play a significant role in the movement of water in the vadose zone. The capillary rise above the water table may extend only a few centimeters for coarse porous media to several meters for a fine silt (See Table).

Groundwater: Vadose Zone

The lower portion of the capillary fringe may be saturated, but because of the capillary forces, is under negative pressure. The water table is also called the phreatic surface, and the pressure below the water table is positive. The soil water zone extends from the ground surface through the root zone of the vegetation. The water content in this zone depends on the soil type, vegetation and water supply in the form of rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation.

Grounwater: Field Capacity

During periods of surface water supply, the direction of flow in the zone is downward and the soil may become saturated. The water in excess of field capacity is called gravitational water and drains through the soil by gravity. After the gravitational water drains from the soil, the remaining water content is called field capacity. At field capacity, water is held in the soil by capillary forces and is unable to move by gravity. If the surface water supply is available for an extended period, the gravitational water may extend to the water table and becomes groundwater recharge.

Groundwater: Aquifers

An aquifer is a geologic formation that contains and transmits groundwater. Aquifers are saturated permeable formations such as unconsolidated sands and gravels, sandstones, limestones, and fractured rock that can transmit significant amounts of water. Aquicludes are impermeable geologic formations, such as clays, shales, and dense crystalline rocks that are not capable of transmitting significant amounts of water.

Groundwater: Confined Aquifer

A confined aquifer is an aquifer confined by two aquicludes. Similar to a pipe, the confining layers allow pressure to build up in the confined aquifer. The piezometric surface for a confined aquifer is analogous to the hydraulic grade line for pipe flow and represents the height that water would rise in a well (or piezometer) installed in the aquifer.
The recharge zone for a confined aquifer is generally a narrow band where the aquifer formation outcrops with the ground surface.

Confined Aquifer

Can wells overflow? Why?

Groundwater: Unconfined Aquifer

An unconfined aquifer is an aquifer with a free water surface for an upper boundary. Above the water table is the unsaturated vadose zone and below the water table is the saturated aquifer.
The recharge area for the unconfined aquifer is usually the ground surface above the aquifer. The unconfined aquifer will normally be hydraulically connected to stream channels that cross the aquifer.

Groundwater Flow in Unconfined Aquifer

Groundwater
The capacity of a formation to contain water is measured by the volumetric porosity (n) that is defined as

Groundwater

The specific yield of a formation is the fractional volume of water that will drain freely by gravity from a unit volume of the formation. For example, 1 m3 of saturated gravel aquifer would contain approximately 0.25 m3 of water. If the water table elevation for an unconfined gravel aquifer is lowered 1 m, the aquifer would be expected to yield 0.22 m3 per square meter of aquifer. On the other hand, a clay formation would contain approximately twice as much water, but would yield only a fraction of the water when the water table is drawn down.

Groundwater

The ability of a formation to transmit water is measured by the hydraulic conductivity or permeability (K) of the formation. The amount of groundwater that can be withdrawn without impairing the aquifer as a water source is known as the safe yield. The safe yield of an aquifer can be limited by the recharge rate, transmissibility of the aquifer, or contamination of the groundwater. Water seeping into an aquifer is known as recharge. This takes place intermittently during and immediately following periods of rain and snow-melt. Recharge occurs where permeable soil or rock allows water to readily seep into the ground. These areas are known as recharge areas.

Groundwater: Darcys Law

Derived by applying Momentum principle to GW flow.

The hydraulic conductivity (K) is a function of properties of both the fluid and the formation and has units of velocity (L/t). dh/dL represents the slope of the hydraulic grade line. For an unconfined aquifer, the slope of the hydraulic grade line is the slope of the water table and for a confined aquifer it is the slope of the piezometric surface.

Groundwater: Darcys Law

Groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater
where A is the total area perpendicular to the direction of flow. The velocity (= -K dh/dL) represents the specific discharge (Q/A) and not the velocity in the pore space. The average velocity in the pore space is

where ne is the effective porosity. ne < n

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Groundwater

As shown in the sketch below, two piezometers were installed in a confined aquifer. The piezometers were installed 1,000 m apart (dL). The head at piezometer A was measured as 42.1 m (ha) and the head at piezometer B was measured as 38.3 m (hb). The aquifer has a saturated thickness (m) of 10.5 m, an intrinsic permeability (k) of 100 darcys, a temperature of 20C, and an effective porosity (ne) of 0.20. Determine the discharge rate through the aquifer in m3/day/m of aquifer width, the specific discharges, the pore velocity, and the time for water to travel from piezometer A to piezometer B.

Example #1: Darcys Law

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Example #2: Darcys Law

To measure the recharge rate at A and the discharge rate at B in Example #1, two additional piezometers were installed above and below the upper aquiclude at each location. The readings on the piezometers are shown in the sketch. The intrinsic permeability of the aquiclude is 0.01 darcy.

GW Wells

Installed to provide water supply, recharge, or observation. The casing is usually grouted in the borehole to prevent contaminated water from flowing along the outside of the casing into the aquifer. A concrete slab is normally placed around the casing to prevent contaminated surface water from ponding around the well. The well screen provides the hydraulic connection with the aquifer and prevents formation sand from entering the well. An observation well usually has a short well screen and is used to collect water quality samples and/or monitor water levels at a specific elevation in the aquifer. An observation well used to monitor water levels (or piezometric surface in a confined aquifer) is called a piezometer. Piezometers generally have a small diameter and are often nested to monitor the piezometric surface at several levels in an aquifer.

GW Wells

Well Hydraulics

When a water supply well is pumped, a cone of depression is formed around the well. The drop in water level (or piezometric surface) is called drawdown. Well hydraulics involve the computation of drawdown around a well. The hydraulics of a recharge well is basically the same as that of a pumped well, except the discharge rate and drawdown are negative.

Thiem Equation: Steady flow in Confined Aquifer

If rw is the radius of the well and R is the radius of influence of the well, then the drawdown at the well (sw) is

A confined aquifer with a thickness (m) and is pumped at a constant rate (Q) Apply Darcy equation for an isotropic, homogeneous aquifer.

Example #3: Steady-state drawdown in Confined Aquifer

A 24-inch diameter well is installed in a confined aquifer using a 6inch gravel pack (rw = 1.5 ft). The aquifer has a transmissivity of 40,000 gpd/ft, and the well is pumped at a rate of 2,000 gpm. If the radius of influence (R) of the well is 100,000 ft, determine the steady-state drawdown at the well.

Steady flow in Unconfined Aquifer

If the drawdown for an unconfined aquifer is small compared with the thickness of the aquifer, then (h1 + h2)/2 is approximately equal to H and the equation reduces to the steady-state well equation for a confined aquifer. Thiem Equation is often used for both confined and unconfined aquifers; however, the radius of influence for the two types of aquifers is very different.

Example #4: Steady-state drawdown in Unconfined Aquifer

A 12-inch diameter well is installed in an unconfined aquifer with a saturated thickness of 100 ft. The aquifer has a transmissivity of 40,000 gpd/ft, and the well is pumped at a rate of 600 gpm. If the radius of influence (R) of the well is 4,000 ft, determine the steady-state drawdown at the well.

Theis Equation:

Unsteady flow in Confined Aquifer

Theis Equation: Unsteady flow in Confined Aquifer

Example #5: Unsteady-state drawdown in Unconfined Aquifer

The unconfined aquifer in Example #4 has a storage coefficient of 0.15. Compute the drawdown for r = 0.5 ft and 4,000 ft after 1 year of pumping at a rate of 600 gpm using Theis equation.

Aquifer Testing

Aquifer Testing

Example #6: Aquifer Testing