The recharge time of an aquifer may vary largely depending on the conditions, but it is normally

known that most aquifers may take up to several years to receive water from rainfalls. In this
assignment you will have to assess the recharge time of an aquifer.
The aquifer under examination is 100 m deep, where there is the water table surface. The
aquifer is made of a sandy soil with Csand = 95% and Cclay = 5%, and is assumed to be uniform over
the depth (see figure). Your assignment is to:

(Q1) Determine the aquifer recharge time after a precipitation event. To determine the recharge
time, you have to solve the equation of flow for an unsaturated soil (the Richards equation). The
recharge time is nothing but the time a water front takes to move from the soil surface to the
water table – in practice, you are using water as a tracer over space (the depth) and time. Assume
the initial saturation over the vertical direction is uniform and equal to S(t = 0) = 0.6. As a
precipitation event, use an input of water of 50 mm/day lasting for some days (say 50 days) from
day 100; this will allow you to produce a sharp water front and see how this move down the soil
over time. It is not possible to anticipate a numerical grid for numerical solution, but a grid could
be made of 200 layers aligned vertically and indefinitely extended (it is a 1-D problem). In each
layer, solve the continuity and flow (Darcy’s) equations as in the Richards equation framework. It
is convenient to solve this problem in Matlab rather than Excel, where you can code the finite
difference integration method of the partial differential equation describing the water flow.
Produce a figure that shows the soil saturation profile over time and that allows you to detect the
saturation peak of the water front following the precipitation, hence the aquifer recharge time.
Indicate in your answer the time the water front reaches depth 10m, 20m, 50m, and 100m (this
last is the recharge time).
(tip: in Matlab, ‘pcolor’ and ‘contour’ commands allow easy representation of data structured in
three dimensional matrices. Note that a similar exercise was proposed in Tutorial 8).

(Q2) Repeat your calculations as in (Q1) but assume the aquifer is made of a soil with Csand =
55% and Cclay = 5%. As for (Q1), produce a figure of the soil saturation profile over time and
indicate the time the water front reaches depth 10m, 20m, 50m, and 100m.
(Q3) Report on your calculation scheme (e.g., physical principles, maths used, approach, grid,
integration time, equivalent quantities such as hydraulic conductivity used in your numerical
scheme, etc.), and propose an interpretation of your results in (Q1) and (Q2). You can elaborate
on these results highlighting differences, similarities, unexpected results, etc. In doing so, you
can make use of additional calculations if necessary to explain your findings. Do not exceed 5
pages in total (i.e., including your answers to Q1, Q2 and Q3)