Subject: HYDROLOGY AND DRAINAGE

ENGINEERING
MUET

Section: Groundwater Hydrology

Presentation #: 05 (1 hr)

Tube Wells
 Main Parts of a Tube well
 Brief Description of Some Parts of Tube well
 Types of Tube well

Instructor: Prof. Dr. Ashfaque A. Memon

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Tube Wells
Discharge from a tube well can be several times more than
that from an open well. The reasons are:

1. It can be sunk to several hundred feet, and hence,

tap water from several aquifers.

2. Due to Graded filter,

velocity towards tube well >> critical velocity of flow

3. Due to very large x-sectional area, because of radial

flow from several aquifers.
Main Parts of a Tube well
1) Housing Pipe

2) Blind Pipes

3) Screens or Strainers

4) Bail Plug or Sand Trap

5) Gravel Pack, and

6) Pumping Equipment
Brief Description of Some Parts of Tube well

As the name suggests tube well consists of a pipe (tube) inserted in the
ground.

The portion of the pipe passing through aquifer is provided with slots
(openings). The pipe with slots is called a screen or strainer.

The lengths of the pipe, which pass through impervious layers and do
not have slots, is called blind pipes.

These pipes are surrounded by gravel pack/graded filter, which

prevents entry of sand particles with water into the pipe.

sand trap is a short length of blind pipe, provided at the bottom of the
tube well to collect very fine sand particles, which have entered the
tube well pipe through strainer.

The well is generally plugged at the bottom by cement concrete.

1) Housing Pipe

usually a mild steel pipe.

lengths varies with the type of pump used.

for centrifugal pump suction pipe with a

length of 30 ft. and diameter of 6-8 in. is
suitable for pumping 2 cfs.

In case of turbine pumps the length of

housing pipes range between 100 ft. to 200 ft
2) Blind Pipe

A tube well may penetrate several

layers of both aquifer and impervious
layers.

A pipe called blind pipe which does not

contain any openings, and is provided
through impervious layers
3) Screen or Strainer

These are perforated pipes around which the fine

wire mesh is wrapped to arrest the sand particles.

serves as the intake section: sucks water from an

aquifer.

A well designed screen is that which allows sand

free water in ample quantity with minimum loss of
head to enter into the well.
Types of Strainers

i. Cook strainer

ii. Tej strainer

iii. Brownlie strainer

iv. Ashford strainer

i. Cook strainer

 a hollow brass tube manufactured by

rolling.

 The slots are cut on the pipe in the

form of a truncated hollow pyramid.

 The slots are narrow outside and wide

towards inside.

 Fine wire mesh is wrapped around the

strainer pipe to cover the slots.

 The size of the slots varies from 0.15 to

0.40 mm.
ii. Tej strainer

 a commonly used strainer.

 manufactured from brass sheet

by bending it to the shape of a
circular pipe.

 consists of a welded joint.

 The tube is wrapped with fine

wire mesh.
iii. Brownlie strainer
 manufactured from steel pipe having star shaped
projections.

 The perforations are made on the circular body.

 The strainer pipe is first encased within a wire net. Then

fine wire mesh is wrapped around the net.

 The net and the mesh are generally made of copper.

iv. Ashford strainer

• made of perforated steel tube.

• a thick copper wire is wound round the pipe on which

fine wire mesh is wrapped.

• thus a gap is maintained between the tube and the

mesh.
Characteristics of Properly Designed Well Strainer

Openings/slots should be continuous and uninterrupted.

Slots to provide
maximum percentage of open area consistent with adequate
strength of the screen.

Slots should widen inwardly.

Single material of construction to avoid galvanic corrosion.

4) Bail Pipe or Sand Trap

• small length of plain pipe used at the bottom end of the screen.

• allows sand which has entered the screen in spite of all the
precaution to prevent its entry.

• Sand is settled down in the pipe without interfering with the

performance of the screen.

• Sand trap is usually 4 to 6 ft. in length.

• usually kept a little above the bottom of the bore because it would
give way under the weight of the whole pipe length.

• In fact, the tube well pipe does not rest on the ground at the bottom
but is held in position by skin friction of the bore walls.
5) Gravel Pack

In sandy and unconsolidated formations of aquifer,

fine particles of soil seep into the well pipe during
pumping.

To prevent it, a graded filter called gravel pack, is

provided between the screen and the bore hole
walls.
6) Pumping Equipment

a) Constant Displacement Pumps

Piston pumps
Rotary pumps

b) Variable Displacement Pumps

Centrifugal pumps
Volute Type
Diffusion Type
Mixed Flow Type

Bore Hole Type Pump

Turbine Pumps
Submersible Pumps
a) Constant Displacement Pumps

Constant displacement pumps deliver same volume of water against

any head within which they can operate.

The use of constant displacement pumps is confined to places

where discharge is low.

In tube wells these pumps are rarely used.

b) Variable Displacement Pumps (mostly used type of pump)

i) Centrifugal pumps

most important class of pumps.

very extensively used as compared to other

classes of pumps.

maximum suction head under which the pump can

practically work effectively is about 20 ft. to 25 ft.

The pump is driven by power from an external

source, which rotate its vanes.

This gives a centrifugal head to the water in the

pump chamber.

The water leaves the vanes at the outer

circumference with a high velocity and pressure.

The high pressure of the water is utilized in

overcoming the delivery head of the pump.
Types of Centrifugal Pumps

Differ due to change in shape and design of impeller.

ii) Bore Hole Type Pump

Turbine Pumps

Installed where
ground water is very deep
installation of a conventional centrifugal pump is
difficult and expensive

very compact design

The top 50 ft. to 100 ft. of the bore hole and casing pipe
is generally kept larger than the remaining bore, so as to
accommodate the pump in the casing itself.

size of the housing pipe, impellers and bowl assembly is

usually small.

hence, discharge as well as the lift is usually small.

The pump is driven by a vertical shaft type electric motor,

coupled directly and placed to the top of the line shaft at
ground level. Such pumps are generally called line shaft
pumps.
Submersible Pumps

Problems posed to a line shaft pump:

transmission of power by a long shaft.
The verticality of the pipe deep pumps

 To overcome these difficulties, submersible

pumps is developed in which the motor is
coupled directly to the impellers and the whole
set is submerged in water.

 The pump is a vertical centrifugal pump with

radial or mixed flow impellers.

 All metallic bearings are water lubricated and

protected against ingress of sand.

 Advantages
both the pump and the motor needs no
maintenance because all the bearings
are water lubricated.
Types of Tube well

Depending upon type of intake section and type of flow

from aquifer to the well, tube wells can be classified into:

1.Strainer type tube well

2.Cavity type tube well

3.Slotted type tube well

1. Strainer well

 Most common and widely used

 Commonly ‘tube well’ refers to “strainer well”

 Slots on main pipe are bigger in size than mesh openings.

 Area of slots = area of mesh openings, to maintain velocity of flow.

 Little space is provided between perforated pipe and wire mesh to

maintain area of flow.

 General mesh size = D60 to D70 of surrounding soil.

 It can draw water from an unconfined or/and confined aquifer(s).

 Flow is radial
2. Cavity well

 Water is drawn from bottom of the well where a cavity is formed.

 Essential conditions:
in confined aquifer of good specific yield.

strong impervious material above aquifer, e.g. clay.

 Working:

At first pumping, initially sand particles come out and form a cavity.

On further pumping cavity is enlarged, and critical condition of flow

(vc) is achieved.

When this equilibrium is formed, clean water starts coming out.

Velocity < critical velocity

Flow is spherical.
3. Slotted well
It is a well which consists of slots on
the tube penetrating to a confined
aquifer.

Selected when:
1) suitable aquifer is not available up
to 100 m depth, i.e. strainer well
cannot be used.

2) strong roof is not available, so a

cavity well cannot be opted.

Size of slots = 25 mm x 3 mm @ 10-

12 mm spacing

To stop silt entry, well shrouding is

done with gravel and coarse sand.