HYDROLOGY: BASIC SUB-SURFACE FLOW
Ground water is an important source of water supply for
municipalities, agriculture, and industry. It may be
characterized according to vertical distribution, indicating
the main divisions of subsurface water as shown.
In the zone of aeration, soil pores are partially filled with
water. It is bounded by the ground surface and water table.
Its three subzones are the:
1.) Soil Water Zone – major root band of vegetation;
varies with soil type and vegetation, water content
depends primarily on recent exposure to rain and
infiltration.
2.) Vadose/ unsaturated zone
3.) Capillary zone/ fringe – extends from the water table to the
limit of capillary rise
The water table is defined as the level to which water will rise in a well drilled into the saturated zone, which divides the
unsaturated zone from the saturated zone.
In the zone of saturation, all pores of the water are filled with water. For most aquifers, porosity, expressed as the ratio of the
volume of voids to the total volume, ranges from 25% to 35% for most aquifer systems. Water can be removed from the saturated
zone by drainage or by pumping from a well.
There are four types of aquifer systems or saturated formations:
An aquifer is a formation that contains sufficient An aquitard is a saturated, low permeability
permeable material to yield significant quantities of stratum, such as a silty clay, that may leak water from
water to wells and springs. It is generally areally one aquifer to another. It is a formation through
extensive and may be overlain or underlain by which only seepage is possible and thus the yield is
confining beds. It transmits water relatively easily insignificant compared to an aquifer. It is is partly
due to its high permeability. permeable.
i.e. unconsolidated deposits of sand and gravel i.e. sandy clay
An aquiclude is saturated and is a relatively
impermeable confining unit that might act as a An aquifuge is a geological formation that is
confining layer above or below an aquifer neither porous nor permeable. It has no
system. It may be considered as closed to water interconnected openings and hence it cannot
movement even though it may contain large transmit water.
amounts of water due to its high porosity. i.e. massive compact rock without any fractures
i.e. clay
Aquifers are further classified as confined or unconfined.
Confined aquifer/ artesian Unconfined/ water table
well aquifer
- Confined between two - A free water surface exists.
impervious layers
(aquitards/ aquifuges) - Recharge takes place
through infiltration of
- Recharge takes place precipitation on the
only in areas exposed ground surface.
to the ground surface.
- A well driven into an
- Water is under pressure unconfined aquifer will
therefore its piezometric indicate a static water
level is much higher level corresponding to the
than the top level of the water table at that
aquifer. location.
Henri Darcy investigated the flow of water through beds of permeable sand and established the hydraulic
principles of the movement of ground water. Darcy’s law states that “the flow rate through porous media is
proportional to the head loss and inversely proportional to the length of the flow path.”
This forms the basis for the governing ground water flow equations applied to well hydraulics and ground water
hydrology.
WELLS form the most important mode of groundwater extraction from an aquifer. If a well penetrates an
extensive homogenous isotropic aquifer in which the water table is initially horizontal, a circular depression in the
water table must develop when the well is pumped since no flow could take place without gradient toward the
well. This depression is called a cone of depression, and the drop in water level s is called the drawdown.
The analysis of flow towards such a well was given by
Dupuit (1863).
DUPUIT’S ASSUMPTIONS
1. For small inclinations of the free surface, the
streamlines can be assumed to be horizontal and the
equipotentials are thus vertical.
2. The hydraulic gradient is equal to the slope of the free
surface and does not vary with depth. This assumption
is satisfactory in most of the flow regions except in the
immediate neighborhood of the well.
CASE I: Steady Radial Flow to a Well—Confined
CASE II: Steady Radial Flow to a Well—Unconfined
Transmissivity, T is a term often used in ground water hydraulics as applied to confined aquifers. It is defined as the
product of K and the average saturated thickness of the aquifer, B.
Hydraulic conductivity K is usually expressed in m/day (ft/day), and transmissivity T in m2/day (ft2 /day).
