Groundwater Storage and Yielding

• Aquifer Functions
• Porosity and Water Contents
• Storage in Unconfined Aquifer
• Specific Yield
• Storage in Confined Aquifer
• Specific Storage
• Storage Coefficient
• Aquifer Compressibility
• Water Compressibility
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 Aquifer Functions
An aquifer performs two important functions:
• Storage function
• Conduit function

Two properties of an aquifer related to its storage

function are its porosity and its specific yield.

The property of an aquifer related to its conduit function

is permeability.
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 Effective Porosity
• Effective porosity is the fraction of the
porosity (inter-connected pores) that is
available for transporting water (excludes
fraction of pores too small to hold water, or
those that are not inter-connected).

• It can be measured in the laboratory

directly by saturating a dried sample of
known volume and measuring water uptake
in a sealed chamber over time

• For unconsolidated coarse-grained

sediments there is no significant difference
between porosity and effective porosity.

• Effective porosity is further classified as 3

primary and secondary porosity.
 Porosity
It is an index of how much ground water can be stored in the
saturated material.

Expressed as the ratio of the volume of voids Vv to the total

volume VT:
φ = VV / VT = VV / (VS + VV)

Void ratio is defined as volume of voids to volume of solids.

e = VV / VS

Porosity and void ratio are related as:

φ = e / (1 + e)
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 Moisture Retention Parameters
• It is very important and necessary to understand the existence and
behaviour of water in a soil system.

• A soil profile comprises a conglomeration of solid particles together

with the void space between these particles. This void space may be
filled with gas, liquid, or a combination of both.

• On the basis of three constituents of soil (solids, water and air), the
relative quantity of liquid can be defined using a range of parameters.

• Soil water content is expressed on a gravimetric (mass) or

volumetric basis.

• The most common of these are; the wet weight moisture content, the
dry weight moisture content, the volumetric moisture content, and the
degree of saturation. These parameters are briefly explained below:
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Wet weight moisture content (θw)

This relates the mass of water in a soil (Mw) to the total mass (Mt).
θw = Mw / Mt

Dry weight moisture content (θd)

This relates the mass of water in a soil (Mw) to the mass of solid
particles (Ms).

θd = Mw / Ms

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Volumetric moisture content (θv)
This is the ratio of the volume of water in a soil (Vw) to the total
volume of the soil (Vt),
θv = Vw / Vt
• For a saturated soil system, the θv equals the porosity of the
soil.
• This measure of moisture content is particularly useful in
hydrology since it can be used to evaluate the equivalent
depth of soil moisture storage.

Degree of saturation (S)

The degree of saturation is the ratio of the volume of water (Vw) to
the total volume of voids (Vv) in a sample.
S = Vw / Vv
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 Moisture Retention Relationships
The following relationships are often of practical use.

θw = θd / (1+θd) S = θv/e
θd = θw / (1-θw) θv = θd (ρdb / ρw)
φ = 1 – ρdb/ρwb
where:
ρdb = is dry bulk density of the sample, and is defined as the ratio of mass of
dry solids (Ms) to total volume (Vt).
For soils and gravels = 1.85 gm/cm3

ρwb = is wet bulk density of the sample, and is defined as the ratio of total
mass (Mt) to total volume (Vt).

ρ = Particle density = Ms/Vs = 2.65 gm/cm3

ρw = is density of water equal to 1000 kg/m3 .

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 STORAGE COEFFICIENT
• The storage coefficient of an aquifer is defined as the
volume of water yielded per unit horizontal area per unit
drop of water table (unconfined aquifers) or piezometric
surface (confined aquifers).
ΔVw S = storage coefficient
S 
A ΔH ΔVw = volume of water released
A = horizontal area of aquifer
ΔH = change in piezometric head

• For unconfined aquifer, the storage coefficient is called

specific yield.
• For confined aquifer, the storage coefficient is called specific
storage.
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 h
h

S=V/A h
Unconfined aquifer S = Ss b Confined aquifer
Specific yield Specific Storage
Storativity
 Specific Yield
Specific yield (Sy) is the volume of water that an unconfined
aquifer releases from storage per unit surface area of aquifer per
unit drop in the water table.

Where as the specific retention (Sr) of a soil and is the ratio of

the volume of water it will retain after saturation against the
force of gravity to its own volume. It is also called field
capacity.

The sum of the specific yield and the specific retention is the
porosity of the material as illustrated mathematically by

φ = Sy + Sr 11
Selected values (% by volume) of porosity, specific yield and
specific retention (Heath, 1982).

Material Porosity Specific Specific

Yield Retention
Clay 50 2 48
Sand 25 22 3
Gravel 20 19 1
Limestone 20 18 2
Sandstone 11 6 5
Granite 0.1 0.09 0.01
Basalt 11 8 3

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Specific Storage
The specific storage SS of a confined aquifer is defined as the volume of water that a
unit volume of aquifer releases from storage under a unit decline in hydraulic head.

dVW SS   g  ( p   )
SS 
(x y z ) dh b    p
The specific storage is regarded as a constant; a property of the aquifer material,
its contained water and the overburden pressure. It has the dimension of 1/L.
αP = Pore volume compressibility = change in pore volume per unit pore
volume per unit change in effective stress
αb = Bulk volume compressibility = change in pore volume per unit bulk
volume per unit of change in effective stress
β = Water Compressibility = = 4.4 x 10-10 m2/N
Storage Coefficient
The storage coefficient (storativity) S is defined as
S = SS b = ρ g φ b (αP + β)
The storage coefficient is a dimensionless parameter that can be interpreted as
the volume of water released from a column of unit area and height b per13unit
decline of pressure head.
 Groundwater Yielding
Unconfined aquifers yield water to wells or other collection
facilities because of drainage of pore space and air replacing
water in the dewatered zone as the water table drops.
Confined aquifers do not yield water by drainage of pore space
because there is no falling water table and the aquifer material
remains saturated. They yield water due to consolidation or
compression of the aquifer and confining layers due to lowering
of the piezometric surface.
• The compression of the porous media matrix cannot
always be reversed even if the aquifer is brought back to
the original piezometric head.
• Significant withdrawal of water from a confined aquifer
may therefore result in permanent reduction of aquifer
storage capacity.
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 Cont

• The amount of water yielded by compression of aquifer per

unit drop in piezometric surface is much less than that
yielded by drainage of pore space per unit drop of water
table.
• The storage coefficient for confined aquifers ranges from
0.00005 to 0.005 and for unconfined aquifers ranges from
0.05 to 0.30.

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Problem #1
A volume of water equal to 40 x 106 m3 is pumped from an
unconfined aquifer through wells uniformly distributed over an
area of the aquifer equal to 100 km2. The specific yield of the
aquifer as determined by pump tests is Sy = 20 %. Determine the
average drawdown of the water table assuming it is uniformly
distributed over the aquifer area.
Solution ΔVw
Sy 
A ΔH

ΔH = 40 x 106 /(100 * 106 x 0.20)

Water Table drawdown = 2 m

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Problem #2
An artesian aquifer 20 m thick has a porosity of 20 % and bulk
modulus of compression 108 N/m2. Estimate the storage
coefficient of the aquifer.
Solution

Thickness = b = 20 m Porosity = φ = 20%

Bulk Modulus of compression = Eb = 108 N/m2
Bulk volume compressibility = αb = 1/E = 10-8 m2/N
Water compressibility = β = 4.4 x 10-10 m2/N
The storage coefficient is
S = ρ g b (αb + φ β)
= 1000 * 9.81 * 20 * ( 10-8 + 0.2 * 4.4 x 10-10) = 0.00197

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