Physical Properties of Aquifers

Groundwater Hydraulics

Daene C. McKinney

1
 Outline
• Porous Medium
– Porosity
– Moisture Content
– Particle Size
– Distribution of water in subsurface
– Capillary Pressure
– Soil Moisture Characteristic Curves
– Specific Yield and Retention
• Piezometric head in aquifers
• Aquifer Types
– Aquifer Storage
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Porous Medium
• Groundwater
– All waters found beneath the
ground surface
– Occupies pores (void space space
not occupied by solid matter)
• Porous media
– Numerous pores of small size
– Pores contain fluids (e.g., water
and air)
– Pores act as conduits for flow of
fluids
• Type of rocks and their
– Number, size, and arrangement
of pores
– Affect the storage and flow
through a formation.
• Pores shapes are irregular
– Differences in the minerals
making up the rocks
– Geologic processes experienced
by them.

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Continuum Approach to Porous Media
• Pressure, density etc. apply to fluid elements that are large
relative to molecular dimensions, but small relative to the
size of the flow problem
• We adopt a Representative Elementary Volume (REV)
approach
• REV must be large enough to contain enough pores to
define the average value of the variable in the fluid phase
and to ensure that the pore-to-pore fluctuations are
smoothed out
• REV must be small enough that larger scale
heterogeneities do not get averaged out (layering, etc.)
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Porosity
Soil volume V
(Saturated) Pore
with
water

solid

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 Porosity
Soil volume V
• Property of the voids of (Saturated) Pore
with
the porous medium water
• % of total volume
occupied by voids solid

Rhombo
Cubic Packing
Packing

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 Porosity
Porosity: total volume of soil Soil volume V
(Saturated) Pore
that can be filled with water with
water

solid
V = Total volume of element
Vi = Volume of Pores
Vs = Volume of solids

rm = particles density (grain density) Void Ratio:

rd = bulk density

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 Typical Values of Porosity
Material Porosity (%)
Peat Soil 60-80
Soils 50-60
Clay 45-55
Silt 40-50
Med. to Coarse Sand 35-40
Uniform Sand 30-40
Fine to Med Sand 30-35
Gravel 30-40
Gravel and Sand 30-35
Sandstone 10-20
Shale 1-10
Limestone 1-10

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Volumetric Water Content

Soil volume V
(Unsaturated)

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Saturation
Soil volume V
(Unsaturated)

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Particle Size of Some Soils

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Particle Size Distribution

Poorly sorted
silty fine to
medium sand
Well sorted fine sand

• Particle size distribution curves

– Relative % of grain sizes
• Soil classification standards
• Soil texture 12
 Particle Size Distribution

Sand 49%
Clay 40%

Soil Characteristics
of Cyprus Soil
Sample

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Occurrence of Groundwater
• Ground water occurs when
water recharges the
subsurface through cracks and
pores in soil and rock
• Shallow water level is called
the water table

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 Distribution of Water in Subsurface
Moisture Profile Soil Profile Description
• Different zones
– depend on % of pore
space filled with water
• Unsaturated Zone
– Water held by capillary
forces, water content
near field capacity
except during
infiltration
• Soil zone
– Water moves down
(up) during infiltration
(evaporation)
• Capillary fringe
– Saturated ar base
– Field capacity at top
• Saturated Zone
– Fully saturated pores

Field capacity - Water remaining after gravity drainage

Wilting point - Water remaining after gravity drainage &
evapotranspiration
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 Saturation Soil volume V
(Unsaturated)

• Saturation

• Water Content

• Water Saturation

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 Surface Tension
• Below interface
– Forces act equally in all directions
• At interface
– Some forces are missing Interface air
– Pulls molecules down and together
– Like membrane exerting tension on
the surface
water Net force
• Curved interface inward
– Higher pressure on concave side
• Pressure increase is balanced by
surface tension No net force
– s = 0.073 N/m (@ 20oC)
• Capillary pressure
– Relates pressure on both sides of interface

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 Surface Tension
sgl
gas
liquid
ssg b

b < 90o - liquid is wetting the solid solid ssl

b > 90o - liquid is non-wetting the solid

air air

solid solid

Hg b
b
water

Mercury nonwetting solid Water wetting solid

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 Capillary Pressure
• Two immiscible fluids in contact exhibit a
discontinuity in pressure across the interface
separating them.
• This pressure difference is capillary pressure pc
• It depends on the curvature of the interface.

pnw is the pressure in the nonwetting fluid (air, say)

pw is the pressure in the wetting fluid (water, say)
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 Capillary Pressure
Air

Solid Solid

Wate
r r

Rise of water in a capillary tube. Capillary forces must balance the weight of water

Capillary pressure head

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 Capillary Pressure
Air

Negative
pressure A
Solid Solid

Water
Positive r
pressure

(A) Below the water level

(B) Above the water level

Difference in pressure across the interface is

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 Drainage
• Drainage occurs when the water pressure in
the pores becomes less than the air pressure
• Interfacial tension prevents displacement of
water in the left pore
solid

Pore water r Pore air

press. = -p press. = 0

solid

If pc increases, radius must decrease, or water occupies smaller pores.

Water recedes into pores small enough to support the interface with a radius required
to balance the capillary force. Water drains from the large pores first. 22
 Energy in Flow Systems
v2/(2g)Velocity head
p/g Pressure head
v2/(2g)
z Elevation head

EGL

p/g HGL
v2/(2g)

Hydraulic grade line (HGL) datum Energy grade line (EGL) –

– height of water in Height of water in pitot tube
piezometer tube
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 Piezometric Head
• Confined aquifer
p
h z


• Unconfined aquifer
p
h z

Pressure
p  0 head = 0

hz

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Piezometric Head in Unsaturated Flow
Soil volume V
(Unsaturated)

Saturated Zone Water Table Unsaturated Zone

q=f q<f
<0 =0 >0
pw > 0 pw = 0 pw < 0

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 Subsurface Pressure Distribution
z
Capillary pressure head Ground surface

in zone above water Pressure is

table negative above
water table

Unsaturated zone

Hydrostatic pressure
Water table z  0; p  0
distribution exists below Pressure is
positive below
the water table (p = 0). water table
d1

Saturated zone P  d1  0

p0 p0 p0
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 Soil Water Characteristic Curves
y Vadose
Zone Porosity

Capillary
Zone
yb
Critacal
Head
(Bubbling
Press.) qo f
Irreducible Porosity
• Capillary pressure head Water content
• Function of:
– Pore size distribution
– Moisture content
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Capillary Rise in Soils

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 Aquifer Types

• Confined aquifer • Aquifer

– Under pressure – Store & transmit water
– Bounded by impervious layers – Unconsolidated deposits sand and gravel,
• Unconfined aquifer sandstones etc.
– Phreatic or water table • Aquitard
– Bounded by a water table – Transmit don’t store water
– Shales and clay
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 Aquifer Storage
• Storativity (S) - ability of Unit area

an aquifer to store water

• Change in volume of Unit decline
in head

stored water due to

change in piezometric
head.
• Volume of water Released

released (taken up) from water

aquifer per unit decline

(rise) in piezometric
head.
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 Aquifer Storage
• Fluid Compressibility (b)
• Aquifer Compressibility (a)
• Confined Aquifer
– Water produced by 2
mechanisms
1. Aquifer compaction due to
increasing effective stress V  g
2. Water expansion due to
decreasing pressure
• Unconfined aquifer
– Water produced by draining
pores

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 Unconfined Aquifer Storage
• Storativity of an Unit area

unconfined aquifer (Sy,

Unit decline
specific yield) depends in head

on pore space drainage.

• Some water will remain
in the pores - specific
retention, Sr Released
water

• Sy = f – Sr

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Porosity, Specific Yield, & Specific Retention
Sr    S y

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 Confined Aquifer Storage
• Storativity of a confined Unit area

aquifer (Ss) depends on Unit decline

in head
both the compressibility
of the water (b) and the
compressibility of the
porous medium itself
(a). Released
water

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 Example
• Storage in a confined sandstone aqufier
• f = 0.1, a = 4x10-7 ft2/lb, b = 2.8x10-8 ft2/lb, g = 62.4 lb/ft3
• ga = 2.5x10-5 ft-1 and gbf = 1.4x10-7 ft-1
• Solid 
Fluid
• 2 orders of magnitude more storage in solid
• b = 100 ft, A = 10 mi2 = 279,000,000 ft2
S = Ss*b = 2.51x10-3
• If head in the aquifer is lowered 3 ft, what volume is released?
DV = SADh = 2.1x106 ft3

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 Summary
• Porous Medium
– Porosity
– Moisture Content
– Particle Size
– Distribution of water in subsurface
– Capillary Pressure
– Soil Moisture Characteristic Curves
– Specific Yield and Retention
• Piezometric head in aquifers
• Aquifer Types
– Aquifer Storage
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