Chapter seven
Principles 01
Although the mechanism of groundwater flow
through porous media is weil understood, many
uncertainties exist about the flow of water and
tr ansport of solutes in fractured rock s. This has
acquired greater interest as low permeability
formations form potential repositories for high-
level waste.
7.1 Groundwater flow
7.1.1 Laminar and turbulent flow
Groundwater flow through various rock types
may be either laminar or turbulent depending on
their permeability and the hydraulic gradient.
In laminar flow, also known as viscous or
streamline flow, the flow lines are parallel and
the velocity and direction of flow are constant.
The turbulent flow is characterized by high
velocities and the formation of eddies. In lam-
inar flow the velocity of flow is proportional to
the first power of the hydraulic gradient (equa-
tion 7.1).
V=KI
But in turbulent flow, the velocity of flow will
be expressed as
B. B. S. Singhal et al., Applied Hydrogeology of Fractured Rocks
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1999
groundwater
flow and solute
transport
(7.2)
where a is the degree of nonlinearity of the flow
(0.5 ~ a s 1).
Relativel y high hydraulic gradient may give
rise to turbulent flow through large pores, solu-
tion cavities and wide fractures. In laminar
flow, the inertial forces are much smaller than
viscous forces. The transition from laminar to
turbulent flow depends on the Reynolds num-
ber (R e) which is a dimensionless number
expressing the ratio of inertial to viscous forces
act ing on the fluid (equation 7.3).
R = pVd = Vd (7.3)
e Jl V
where p is the fluid density, V is the mean fluid
velocity, d is the diameter of the pipe, J4 is the
dynamic viscosity and v is the kinematic vis-
cosity. In porous media, d can be replaced by
the effective diameter, (de ) of sand grains which
constitutes the aquifer (section 9.2 .1).
By considering porosity, 1] the Reynolds num-
(7.1) ber, Re can be expressed as (UNESCO, 1972)
R = 1 Vd e (7.4)
e 0.751] + 0.23 V
125
Principles of groundwater flow and solute transport
and by considering the intrinsic permeability (k)
instead of effective diameter (de ) , Re is given by
equation (7.5) (van Golf-Racht, 1982)
Re = 5 x 10- V 1/ k
3
(7.5)
115 .5 V
Generally, the flow regime is laminar for Re
< 2000 and turbulent für Re> 2000 (Marsily,
1986).
In fractured rocks, it is difficult to determine
the Reynolds number, since for a given type of
flow it can vary greatly from one point to
another along the same fracture. In fractured
rocks, the diameter of the pipe in equation (7.3)
can be replaced by the hydraulic diameter (D h )
which in a plane fracture is exprcssed by
D, =4A/p (7.6)
where A is the cross-sectional area of the frac-
ture through which flow takes place and p is
th e outside perimeter of the cross-section area
of the flow (Marsily, 1986). For a very long
fracture, D h is equal to twice its aperture, i.e.
D h = 2a, and Re is given by the relation
R = 2Va (7.7)
e v
The walls of a natural fracture will always
have a certain degree of roughness causing an
additional drop in pressure and thereby influ -
ence the flow conditions. The relative rough-
ness, R, (dimensionless) is defined by
(7.8)
where R, is the mean height of the irregulari-
ties (asperities) in thc fracture. Some measured
va lues of R, lie in the range of 0.002 to 0.01.
However, as it is often difficult to measure
roughness in the field, the effect of roughness
on groundwater flow is more of academic
interest.
126
From experimental data, van Golf-Racht
(1982) showed that the transition from laminar
to turbulent flow in fractures takes place at very
low va lues of Reynolds number (",,600).
According to Louis (1974), the transition from
laminar (a = 1) to completely turbulent (a =
0.5) is quite progressive, the exponent slowly
changes from 1 to 0.5 as the Reynolds number
changes fo r instance from 100 to 2300 . Lee and
Farmer (1993) indicated that the critical
Re ynolds number commonly lies between 100
and 2300, decreasing as the relative roughness
of the fracture increases. The flow, therefore,
will change from laminar to turbulent condi-
tion with increase in flow velocity, pore size,
sinuosity and roughness.
7.1.2 Darcy's law
In 1856, Henry Darcy, a French hydraulic engi-
neer, inve stigated the flow of water through fil-
ters. His experiments demonstrated that the
rate of Ilow, i.e. volume of water per unit time,
Q is (a) directly proportional to the cross-
sectional area, A, and head loss, hL' and (b)
inversely proportional to the length of the flow
path, L (Figure 7.1), i.e,
Q _ A and _ hL (7.9)
L
By combining the above relations and intro-
ducing proportionality constant (K) Darcy's law
can be written as
Q= KA hL (7.10)
L
or
Q= KA dh (7.11)
dl
where K is the hydraulic conductivity of the
porous medium and dh/dl is the hydraulic
gradient.