Darcy’s

Law and Flow

Philip B. Bedient
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rice University
Darcy allows an estimate of:
• the velocity or flow rate moving within the aquifer
• the average time of travel from the head of the
aquifer to a point located downstream
Darcy’s Law

• Darcy’s law provides an accurate

description of the flow of ground
water in almost all hydrogeologic
environments.
Flow in Aquifers
Darcy’s Experiment (1856):

Flow rate determined by Head loss dh = h1 - h2

Darcy’s Law
• Henri Darcy established empirically that the
flux of water through a permeable formation
is proportional to the distance between top
and bottom of the soil column.
• The constant of proportionality is called the
hydraulic conductivity (K).

• V = Q/A, V  – ∆h, and V  1/∆L

Darcy’s Law

V = – K (∆h/∆L)
and since
Q = VA (A = total area)

Q = – KA (dh/dL)
Hydraulic Conductivity

• K represents a measure of the ability for flow

through porous media:
• Gravels - 0.1 to 1 cm/sec

• Sands - 10-2 to 10-3 cm/sec

• Silts - 10-4 to 10-5 cm/sec
• Clays - 10-7 to 10-9 cm/sec
Conditions
• Darcy’s Law holds for:
1. Saturated flow and unsaturated flow 2.
Steady-state and transient flow 3. Flow in
aquifers and aquitards 4. Flow in
homogeneous and heterogeneous systems
5. Flow in isotropic or anisotropic media 6.
Flow in rocks and granular media
Darcy Velocity
• V is the specific discharge (Darcy velocity).
• (–) indicates that V occurs in the direction of
the decreasing head.
• Specific discharge has units of velocity.
• The specific discharge is a macroscopic
concept, and is easily measured. It should be
noted that Darcy’s velocity is different ….
Darcy Velocity
• ...from the microscopic velocities
associated with the actual paths if
individual particles of water as they
wind their way through the grains of
sand.

• The microscopic velocities are real, but

are probably impossible to measure.
Darcy & Seepage Velocity
• Darcy velocity is a fictitious velocity
since it assumes that flow occurs across
the entire cross-section of the soil
sample. Flow actually takes place only
through interconnected pore channels.

Av voids
A = total area
Darcy & Seepage Velocity

• From the Continuity Eqn:

• Q = A vD = A V Vs
– Where:
Q = flow rate
A = total cross-sectional area of
       material
AV = area of voids
Vs = seepage velocity
VD = Darcy velocity
Darcy & Seepage Velocity
• Therefore: VS = VD ( A/AV)
• Multiplying both sides by the length of the
medium (L)
VS = VD ( AL / AVL ) = VD ( VT / VV )
• Where:
VT = total volume
VV = void volume
• By Definition, Vv / VT = n, the soil porosity

• Thus V S = VD / n
Equations of Groundwater Flow
• Description of ground water flow is based on:
Darcy’s Law Continuity Equation -
describes conservation of fluid
mass during flow through a
porous medium; results in a partial
differential equation of flow.

• Laplace’s Eqn - most important in math

Derivation of 3-D GW Flow
Equation from Darcy’s Law
z

y
Mass In - Mass Out = Change in Storage
Derivation of 3-D GW Flow
Equation from Darcy’s Law
Replace Vx, Vy, and Vz with Darcy using Kx, Ky, and Kz

Divide out constant , and assume Kx= Ky= Kz = K

Transient Saturated Flow

A change in h will produce change in  and n, replaced

with specific storage Ss = g( + n). Note, is the compressibility of
aquifer and B is comp of water,
therefore,
Solutions to GW Flow Eqns.
Solutions for only a few simple problems can be
obtained directly - generally need to apply numerical
methods to address complex boundary conditions.

h0 h1
Transient Saturated Flow
Simplifying by assuming K = constant in all dimensions
And assuming that S = Ssb, and that T = Kb yields
Steady State Flow to Well
Simplifying by assuming K = constant in all dimensions
and assuming that Transmissivity T = Kb and
Q = flow rate to well at point (x,y) yields
Example of Darcy’s Law
• A confined aquifer has a source of recharge.
• K for the aquifer is 50 m/day, and n is 0.2.
• The piezometric head in two wells 1000 m
apart is 55 m and 50 m respectively, from a
common datum.
• The average thickness of the aquifer is 30
m, and the average width of aquifer is 5 km.
 Compute:
• a) the rate of flow through the aquifer
• (b) the average time of travel from the head of the
aquifer to a point 4 km downstream
• *assume no dispersion or diffusion
 The solution
• Cross-Sectional area= 30(5)(1000) =
15 x 104 m2
• Hydraulic gradient = (55-50)/1000
= 5 x 10-3
• Rate of Flow for K = 50 m/day
Q = (50 m/day) (75 x 101
m2) = 37,500 m3/day
• Darcy Velocity: V = Q/A =
(37,500m3/day) / (15 x 104 m2) =
0.25m/day
 • Seepage Velocity:
And Vs = V/n = (0.25) / (0.2) =
1.25 m/day (about 4.1 ft/day)

• Time to travel 4 km downstream:

T = 4(1000m) / (1.25m/day) =
3200 days or 8.77 years

• This example shows that water moves

very slowly underground.
Limitations of the
Darcian Approach
1. For Reynold’s Number, Re, > 10 or where the flow
is turbulent, as in the immediate vicinity of pumped
wells.

2. Where water flows through extremely fine-grained

materials (colloidal clay)
Darcy’s Law:
Example 2
• A channel runs almost parallel to a river, and they are 2000 ft
apart.
• The water level in the river is at an elevation of 120 ft and 110ft in
the channel.
• A pervious formation averaging 30 ft thick and with K of 0.25 ft/hr
joins them.
• Determine the rate of seepage or flow from the river to the
channel.
Confined Aquifer

Camada impermeável
Rocha permeável

Rio
30 ft Canal
Example 2
• Consider a 1-ft length of river (and channel).
Q = KA [(h1 – h2) / L]

• Where:
A = (30 x 1) = 30 ft2 K
= (0.25 ft/hr) (24 hr/day) = 6 ft/day

• Therefore,
Q = [6 (30) (120 – 110)] / 2000
= 0.9 ft3/day/ft length = 0.9 ft2/day
Permeameters

Constant Head Falling Head

Constant head
Permeameter
• Apply Darcy’s Law to find K:
V/t = Q = KA(h/L)
or:
K = (VL) / (Ath)
• Where:
V = volume flowing in time t
A = cross-sectional area of the sample
L = length of sample
h = constant head
• t = time of flow