Groundwater

Subsurface Water Movement

Groundwater Movement
 Hydraulic conductivity

The hydraulic conductivity, as measured and characterized by Darcys law,

is for water only. This quantity not only characterized the properties of the
media, but it also contains the properties of the fluid within it.
Because of this, if you determine a hydraulic conductivity of a sand by
putting it in a tube and running water through it, you cannot use that
value to calculate the flow rate of, say, motor oil or mercury. This is not a
major issue in most hydrogeology problems (since we generally deal with
water in near-surface environments), but it does concern us if we are
dealing with multiple phases (e.g., oil and water).
To handle those problems, we use a quantity called the intrinsic
permeability (k). This value is a quantity that characterizes the ease with
which any fluid flows through a porous media, and only characterized the
porous media itself.
Cross- sectional Area
 Permeameters
The value of the hydraulic conductivity of earth materials can be measured
in the laboratory using devices called permeameters.
These can be either a constant head permeameter or falling head
permeameter
Permeameters have a chamber to hold a sample of rock or sediment. The
constant head permeameter is used for noncohesive sediments, such as
sand.
A chamber with an overflow provides a supply of water at a constant head.
Water moves through the sample at a steady rate.
The hydraulic conductivity is determined from a variation of Darcys law, which
gives the flux of fluid per unit time. (ie discharge)
If the fluid draining from a permeameter over sometime, t, is collected, the
total volume , V, is the product of the discharge and time.
Aquifer Transmissivity
Homogeneity and Isotropy
Darcys Law in Isotropic Aquifers
Streamlines and flownets