ESS 454

Hydrogeology
Module 3
Principles of Groundwater Flow
• Point water Head, Validity of Darcy’s Law
• Diffusion Equation
• Flow in Unconfined Aquifers & Refraction
of Flow lines
• Flownets

Instructor: Michael Brown

brown@ess.washington.edu
 Outline and Learning Goals

• Understand how to quantitatively calculate

heads and water fluxes in unconfined aquifers

• Be able to qualitatively and quantitatively

estimate how flow lines are bent at interfaces
between materials having different hydraulic
conductivities
 Unconfined Aquifer Jules Dupuit’s
Contribution:
Water Assume
Table
1. Hydraulic gradient is
h1 slope of water table
q’in=Qin/y q’out=q’in 2. Flow is horizontal

h2
y
x=L
x=0

x
 Unconfined Aquifer
Water w=Infiltration (inches/year)
Table
h1 Vertical Flux:
Qinfiltration=w dx dy
qin qout
h2
Horizontal Flux dy
dx

Qin

Qout
 Unconfined Aquifer Consider unconfined
aquifer with infiltration

Consider change in
storage caused by Quantity change
flow in x-direction

Over distance dx

Contribution
from flow in y-
direction
Unconfined Aquifer

A trick

The steady-
Align water table state behavior
gradient in x-direction of an
unconfined
aquifer
 Unconfined Aquifer

This is easy to solve:

Just integrate twice

Two integrations,
two integration
constants

The value of the head a two points (usually the two

boundaries) gives enough information to solve this
 Unconfined Aquifer
w

w=0
x=0 -> h=h1
x=L -> h=h2
h1 flow flow
h2
x=0 L
xw.t.divide

At divide
You can solve for h at water table divide
q’=0
 Diffusion Equation for Unconfined
Aquifer
• Valid for
– small draw-down (small ∆h)
– Nearly horizontal water table
b is average thickness of saturated zone
 Refraction of Flow Lines

Derivation given in book i

Imagine flux tube intersecting boundary
Conserve water through boundary
K1
Apply Darcy’s Law at interface
Use standard trig. relationships K2 tan(r)=K2/K1 tan(i)
r Bent away if K2<K1
Bent towards if K2>K1
End of
Flow in unconfined Aquifers and Refraction of flow lines

Coming up: The creation of “Flownets”