Introduction to Groundwater Flow

Hydraulic rock properties

hydraulic conductivity effective porosity specific storage Hydraulic parameter measurement water pressure measurement hydraulic conductivity measurement typical hydraulic conductivity values

Groundwater resources
confined and unconfined aquifers aquitards and aquicludes complex aquifer systems storativity and specific yield modelling aquifer flow
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Hydraulic and Piezometric Head

In hydraulics, the hydraulic (or energy) head in an incompressible fluid is given by: u2 p h= + +z 2 g g where u is the fluid velocity. In porous media velocities are always very slow so the term u 2 / 2g is omitted and the piezometric head is given by: p h= +z g Hydraulic (or piezometric ) heads are generally expressed in relation to the mean sea level as with topography. Pressure head H, is defined by

H =hz =

p g
2

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Measurement of Water Pressure

Saturated Medium (1) Piezometer
Hole drilled in ground fitted with perforated tube. The water level gives the elevation of the water table (the point where the pressure is equal to atmospheric) Beneath the free surface pressure generally increases with depth

(2) Pressure Gauge - Required for low permeability formations

Electric pressure transducers Hand operated pressure gauge: A tube with a porous point is hammered into the ground. Air is injected by a foot pump. A rubber membrane is held in place at the base of the air tube by the water pressure. When the air pressure exceeds the water pressure, air comes out of the tube outlet (which can be placed in water to make it visible!)
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Darcys Law for Saturated Flow - Reminder

constant water level cross-sectional area of pipe, A h water

sandstone

dh Q h or = K dx A L or in three dimensions : q = K q = K h

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Intrinsic Permeability
Hydraulic conductivity - depends not only on the rock type, but also on fluid viscosity and density. A requirement to separate the hydraulic conductivity into that p art derived from the rock and that from the fluid, has lead to the introduction of intrinsic permeability, k , which is entirely dependent on the rock properties
k g where is the fluid viscosity, is the fluid density and g is the acceleration due to gravity. K=

Intrinsic permeability is essentially a function of the diameter of the pore throats that provide interconnected flow pathways through the rock; the larger the square of the mean pore diameter, the higher the intrinsic permeability.
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Anisotropic Permeability in a Sedimentary Formation

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Laboratory Measurement of Permeability

Medium to high permeability
constant head permeameter (Darcys Experiment) falling-head permeameter
Q

Low permeability medium

Apply large pressure differences with the help of pumps and measure pressures up and down flow for different values of Q.

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Typical Hydraulic Conductivity Values for Different Rock Types (m/s)

UNCONSOLIDATED SEDIMENTS coarse gravels sands and gravels fine sands silts loess clay, shale, glacial till HARD ROCKS dolomitic limestones weathered chalk unweathered chalk limestone sandstone granite, gneiss, compact basalt
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10-1-10-2 10-2-10-5 10-5-10-9 10-9-10-13

10-3-10-5 10-3-10-5 10-6-10-9 10-5-10-9 10-4-10-10 10-9-10-13

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Specific Storage
Specific storage, S S , represents the volume of water that a fully saturated porous rock will absorb or expel per unit volume per unit change in head.
It is usually expressed in units m-1.

Specific storage depends on:

the elasticity of the water the elasticity of the rock matrix structure the elasticity of the rock

Groundwater Flow and Contamination

Groundwater Flow Equation

qz(z+z)

qy (y+y)

q x(x)

q x(x+x)

qy(y) q (z)
z

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Groundwater Resources
Groundwater resources are described in terms of:
aquifers
unconfined (or phreatic) confined

aquitards aquicludes

Groundwater resources tend to have a much greater lateral extent than vertical extent
aquifer modelling is generally two dimensional with groundwater flow assumed to be horizontal

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Aquifers
Aquifer A layer, formation or group of formations of permeable rocks, saturated with water and with a degree of permeability that allows economically profitable amounts of water to be withdrawn.

Typical Unconfined or Phreatic Valley Aquifer

ground surface lakes

water table

vertical exaggeration approximately 100

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Confined Aquifers
upland recharge area flowing artesian well water table

aquiclude

confined aquifer

aquiclude

The water table or phreatic surface, is the level to which the water rises in a well
in an unconfined aquifer, this is the depth at which you reach water in a confined aquifer the aquifer is under pressure, so this may even be above the ground surface ...
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Low Permeability Media

aquitard
a less permeable saturated geological formation

aquiclude
an almost zero permeability saturated geological formation

aquifuge
a saturated geological formation that neither contains nor transmits significant quantities of water

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Aquitards & Aquicludes

An Unconfined Aquifer System

unsaturated AQUIFER perched water table saturated unsaturated AQUICLUDE main water table saturated AQUIFER

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Aquifers
Aquifer A layer, formation or group of formations of permeable rocks, saturated with water and with a degree of permeability that allows economically profitable amounts of water to be withdrawn. Unconfined (or Phreatic) Aquifers: Aquifer where the piezometric surface coincides with the free surface of the aquifer which is overlain by unsaturated zone
Valley aquifers in humid zones: Recharge occurs across the whole surface, outlets are the low points in the topography such as sp rings and rivers. The aquifers behave like underground watersheds. Valley aquifers in arid zones: Recharge happens in short heavy bursts. Water infiltrates through the river/waddy beds. The water table is higher beneath the river than elsewhere contrary to what happens in humid zones.
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 Alluvial aquifers: Unconfined aquifers situated in alluvial deposits along the course of a stream. The water is in equilibrium with the stream which continually drains and recharges it. At the entrance of an alluvial plain, the water level in the stream is higher than that in the aquifer, as the plain narrows at the downstream end this causes the water table in the aquifer to rise often causing marshy areas. Perched aquifers: These lie on an impermeable layer and are not connected to a stream which feeds or drains them They often result in spring lines and provide what is termed a perched water table

Confined Aquifers: An aquifer is said to be confined if it is overlain by a formation with low permeability and if the hydraulic head of the water it contains is higher than the elevation of the upper limit of the aquifer.

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Combined Aquifer System

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Modelling Aquifer Flow

Groundwater flow in large aquifers is generally assumed to be twodimensional and horizontal In phreatic aquifers, the movement of the water table must be accounted for
dewatering and resaturation of porous media hence redevelopment of the storage term in the groundwater flow equation the concepts of storativity and specific yield are introduced

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Storativity
The storativity or storage coefficient , S , represents the volume of water that a porous rock will absorb or expel per unit surface area per unit change in head.
It is a dimensionless quantity and is expressed as either a percentage or fraction.

There are two basic components of storativity:

specific storage, which refers to the compressibility of the water and rock specific yield which describes the quantity of water drained from the aquifer as the water table drops.

The specific storage of a porous medium is small in comparison to the specific yield and only becomes significant in the case of confined aquifers, where the rock matrix remains fully saturated.
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Specific Storage - Confined Aquifers

Where the aquifer is fully saturated, storativity is the amount of water released due to specific storage, SS b where b is the depth of the aquifer. Specific storage (m-1) depends on:
the elasticity of the water the elasticity of the rock matrix structure The elasticity of the rock

clay layer

sandstone aquifer b

clay layer

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Specific Yield
At the free water surface, the water table can move in response to pressure changes and either falls, releasing water from pore space, or rises, saturating new pores within the rock.
this is termed specific yield, Sy and represents the volume of water that can be drained under gravity per unit surface area, per unit drop in head.

In a phreatic aquifer, storativity, S , describes the release of water due to both compressibility and desaturation of the rock matrix:
S = S y + hSS

where h is the head in the phreatic aquifer

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Groundwater Flow Equation

qy (y+y)

qx (x)

q x(x+x)

h qy (y) y

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Recharge and Discharge Areas

In unconfined aquifers, some characteristics are common to most recharge areas and some to most discharge areas. Recharge areas:
topographical high places deep unsaturated zone between the water table and the land surface Flow lines tend to diverge from recharge areas

Discharge areas:
topographical lows water table is found either close to, or at, the ground surface flow lines tend to converge, unless the discharge area is large, such as the sea physical manifestations of the groundwater take the form of a spring, seep, lake, stream or presence of vegetation common in wet areas

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Springs

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Groundwater Interaction with Lakes and Wetlands

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Naturally Varying Flow Regimes

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Groundwater Flow Patterns in Homogeneous Aquifers

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A One-Lake System with a Homogeneous Anisotropic Aquifer

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A One-Lake System with a High Conductivity Layer

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Summary
Three important hydrogeological rock properties:
Hydraulic conductivity (or permeability), porosity and storativity

Groundwater flow governed by:

Darcys Law Conservation of water mass groundwater flow equation

Groundwater resources
aquifers are economically viable groundwater resources that are either under pressure, confined, or with a free surface, unconfined. aquitards, aquicludes and aquifuges are all low permeability formations aquifer systems are complex and may comprise several layers of aquifers separated by low permeability formations groundwater flow in large aquifers is generally assumed to be horizontal storativity and specific yield are used to model two dimensionaltransient flow groundwater can both drain and feed surface water features

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