15CVL455

Groundwater Hydrology
 Course Objectives
 To introduce the groundwater system using the
porous medium properties that control
groundwater storage and flow.
 To estimate the aquifer properties using pumping
test and analysis of test data.
 To use the groundwater flow properties in the
well design and groundwater pumping system.
Course Outcome
 CO1: Understand the basics of groundwater and
analyse movement of groundwater in aquifer.
 CO2: Estimate the aquifer parameters and
groundwater resources for different hydro-
geological boundary conditions.
 CO3: Understand the design principles of wells and
groundwater pumping systems.
Syllabus: Unit 1
Occurrence of ground water: origin - rock properties affecting
ground water vertical distribution
Geologic formations as aquifers - types of aquifers - aquifer
parameters - ground water basins – springs
Laplace equation - potential flow lines - flownet – flownet for
anisotropic soils - seepage under a dam - groundwater contours -
determination of flow direction
Steady unidirectional flows in aquifers - confined and unconfined -
aquifer with percolation - steady radial flow towards a well - well in
uniform flow - steady flow with uniform discharge - partially
penetrating wells - steady flow in leaky aquifer.
Syllabus: Unit 2
Unsteady flow - general equation - Cartesian and polar
coordinate
Unsteady radial flow in to a well - confined, unconfined and leaky
aquifers – multiple well system
Pumping tests – non-equilibrium equation for pumping tests -
Thies’ method - Jacob method - Chow’s method - characteristics
Well losses – step draw down test- well near aquifer boundaries -
determination of boundaries from pumping test.
Image wells for various boundary conditions - Cavity well and
open well - yield tests - pumping and recuperation test.
Syllabus: Unit 3
Tube wells: design - screened wells - gravel packed wells -
well loss - selection of screen size - yield of a well - test holes
- well logs
Methods of construction - dug wells -shallow tube wells - deep
wells - gravity wells
Drilling in rocks - screen installation - well completion - well
development - testing wells for yield - collector - or radial wells
- infiltration galleries - well point system - failure of tube wells.
Ground water investigation methods.
Books
 Raghunath, H.M., “Groundwater”, New Age International, 2007.
 Karanth, K. “Groundwater Assessment, Development and
Management”, Tata McGraw Hill, 2003.
 Garg S. P., “Ground Water and Tube wells”, Oxford & IBH,
1993.
 Raghunath H. M., “Hydrology: Principles, Analysis and Design”,
New Age International Publishers, 2006.
 Todd, D. K. and Mays. L. W., “Groundwater Hydrology”,
Wiley India, 2011.
Online Study materials: NPTEL
Groundwater Hydrology
Dr Rajib Kumar Bhattacharjya, IIT Guwahati
https://nptel.ac.in/courses/105/103/105103026/

Groundwater Hydrology
Dr Anirban Dhar & Dr V R Desai, IIT Kharagpur
https://nptel.ac.in/courses/105/105/105105042/
Online Study materials: MIT OCW
Groundwater Hydrology
Prof Charles Harvey
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/civil-and-environmental-engineering/1-72-groundwater-hydrology-fall-2005/
Evaluation
Evaluation…!
 Introduction: Groundwater
 Water occupying all the voids
within a geological stratum
(saturated zone)
 Unsaturated zone – voids are filled
with water & air
 Groundwater in petroleum
engineering: two fluid system (oil &
water); three fluid system (gas, oil
& water)
Introduction: Groundwater
 Can’t “see” groundwater so a lot more is
done by inference and interpretation
than for surface water.
 ~31% of fresh water
 More than 98% of readily available fresh
water is ground water!
Introduction: Global Water Resources
Introduction: Hydrologic Cycle
Hydrologic Cycle
 Water Budget
 Change of storage (ΔS or dS/dt)
= Input (I) – Output (O)

 Surface water budget

P + Qin – Qout + Qg – Es –Ts – I = ΔSs

 Groundwater budget
I + Gin – Gout – Qg - Eg –Tg = ΔSg
 Water Budget
 Surface water budget
P + Qin – Qout + Qg – Es –Ts – I = ΔSs
 Groundwater budget
I + Gin – Gout – Qg - Eg –Tg = ΔSg

Hydrologic budget (combine the above two budgets)

P + (Qin-Qout) – (Es+Eg) – (Ts+Tg) + (Gin-Gout) = Δ(Ss+Sg)

P - (Qout-Qin) – (Es+Eg) – (Ts+Tg) - (Gout-Gin) = Δ(Ss+Sg)

P – Q – G – E – T - ΔS
Water Budget

Recharge Discharge
Groundwater System

Pumping

Recharge Discharge
Groundwater System
Introduction
Groundwater Hydrology: science of the
occurrence, distribution, and movement of
water below the surface of the earth

Darcy : studied movement of water through sand

Darcy’s law: groundwater flow & hydraulics of
groundwater development
Henry Darcy
 Father of groundwater hydrology
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or
unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully
extracted using a water well.

Aquifuge – Absolutely impermeable

unit that will not transfer water

Aquitard – a layer of low

permeability that can store ground
water and transmit it slowly from
one aquifer to another
Aquifer: Types
Geologic formation storing water and can transmit it in large
quantities.
• Types of Aquifers:
• Confined
• Unconfined
• Semi-Confined (leaky aquifer)
• Perched

23
 Aquifer: Types
Confined Aquifer: sandwiched between two impervious layers; also called artesian
aquifer
Confining Layer: geologic formation with little or no intrinsic permeability

24
 Aquifer: Types
Confined Aquifer: sandwiched between two impervious layers; also called artesian
aquifer
Confining Layer: geologic formation with little or no intrinsic permeability
Unconfined Aquifer: top of water surface is in contact with air; also called water
table aquifer

25
 Aquifer: Types
Confined Aquifer: sandwiched between two impervious layers; also called artesian
aquifer
Confining Layer: geologic formation with little or no intrinsic permeability
Unconfined Aquifer: top of water surface is in contact with air; also called water
table aquifer
Semi-Confined (leaky aquifer):
a confined aquifer with an aquitard as
one of its boundaries;
the top confining layer is not completely
impervious and hence leaks water

26
 Aquifer: Types
Confined Aquifer: sandwiched between two impervious layers; also called artesian
aquifer
Confining Layer: geologic formation with little or no intrinsic permeability
Unconfined Aquifer: top of water surface is in contact with air; also called water
table aquifer
Semi-Confined (leaky aquifer):
a confined aquifer with an aquitard as
one of its boundaries;
the top confining layer is not completely
impervious and hence leaks water
Perched Aquifer: a layer of saturated
water that forms due to accumulation
above an impermeable lens (e.g. clay) 27
 Watertable
Confined Aquifer:
the piezometric surface;
(pressure surface)

Unconfined Aquifer:
the water surface level (or)
depth where the soil
becomes completely
saturated

28
Aquifer: Properties
Aquifers are porous media
Properties relate to the porous media:
 Porosity
 Grain Size Distribution
 Hydraulic Conductivity and Permeability
 Specific Yield
 Compressibility
Porosity (n)
 The fraction of voids volume (VV) to total volume (VT) of the soil
 The amount of water that can be stored in the aquifer is the
volume of the voids between the soil grains.

0 < n < 1, ( also expressed as a percentage by multiplying by 100)

What does porosity depends on
 Packing
 Cubic Packing – Calculate the porosity….
Heterogeneous Particle Sizes
Size and Shape of Grains makes a difference
Typical Porosity Ranges
Porosity
 Microporosity : pores < 2 nm in diameter
 Macroporosity : pores > 50 nm in diameter
 Mesoporosity : pores 2 – 50 nm in diameter
 Total porosity
= Microporosity + Macroporosity +
Mesoporosity
 Effective porosity : contributes to fluid flow
Hydraulic Conductivity (Darcy’s Experiment)
 Measure
  flowrate Q to
estimate specific discharge
(velocity)
q=Q/Area
 Observations
Darcy’s Law
  𝑑h
𝑞=− 𝐾
𝑑𝐿

Why does this minus sign

exist? Hydraulic Conductivity
Head drops with distance, depends on both the
which means that dh/dx is fluid and the porous medium
negative, but q should be
positive
Further Observations of Darcy
In a bed of packed beads the flow rate is
proportional to the ‘diameter of particles’
squared
Further Observations of Darcy
 The flow rate is proportional to the specific weight of
the fluid

 The flow rate is inversely proportional to the viscosity

of the fluid
Hydraulic Conductivity (K)
  Hubert rederived Darcy’s law

ρ density of the fluid

μ dynamic viscosity of the fluid
k intrinsic permeability of the porous medium

hydraulic conductivity depends on the properties of both the

fluid and the porous medium
 Permeability (k)
 Depends
  on the size and connectivity of the pore
space

C tortuosity of the medium (depends on grain size distribution,

packing, etc)
d mean grain diameter ( a proxy for the mean pore diameter)
k measured in darcy (1 darcy = 9.87 x 10-9 cm2) – permeability that
produces unit flux given unit viscosity, head gradient, and cross
sectional area
Darcy’s Equation…

Property of the porous medium

only called intrinsic permeability What drives the flow

Denoted ki with units m2 (or Darcy’s)

1 Darcy=1x10-8cm2 Property of the fluid only
C tortuosity of the medium (constant with no dimension)
 Actual velocity of flow through porous
media
 Darcy
  velocity (or specific
discharge, q) is different from
actual velocity (Vact)

n porosity

Darcy velocity
 Validity of Darcy’s Law
  
 Linear relationship between V & I
 Laminar flow (i.e. low Re Number)
V Darcy velocity
d effective particle size of aquifer material
Grain Size Distribution
 Very few materials have uniform grain sizes.
 To measure the distribution of grains – sieve
analysis
 Metrics – d10 and d60 (ten and sixty percentile
diameters)
 Coeff of uniformity, CU= d60/d10
 d10 is called effective grain size
(d10 is more representational of the soil properties)
Grain Size Distribution
 Validity of Darcy’s Law

𝑉 =− 𝐾𝑖
  
• In porous media, the flow is
laminar whenever Re £ 4
• most groundwater
movement is laminar
• Re is generally less than 1
Validity of Darcy’s Law

q specific discharge (velocity)

J Hydraulic Gradient
Determination K (at lab)
Constant Head Falling Head
Permeameter Permeameter

a) b)
Determination K: Constant Head Permeameter
• Used for low K samples
• Sample of aquifer material obtained by
drilling – placed in the equipment with
correct orientation (because aquifer
materials are anisotropic)
Determination K: Constant Head Permeameter
• Used for low K samples
• Sample of aquifer material obtained by
drilling – placed in the equipment with
correct orientation (because aquifer
materials are anisotropic)
• Water is allowed to flow as shown
• Volume of water collected in a given
time interval – used to measure the
flow rate
Determination K: Constant Head Permeameter
Volume
  of water collected during time
interval t is W

Darcy Equation

(1) = (2)
;
A = πR2
Determination K: Constant Head Permeameter
Exercise:
A constant head permeameter has a
cross-sectional area of 175 cm2 and is
used to measure the hydraulic
conductivity of a field sample of 40 cm
long. If the permeameter discharges 100
ml in 320 seconds under a head
difference of 60 cm, what is the K
(m/day)?
Determination K: Falling Head Permeameter
•  Suitable for analysing samples with high
hydraulic conductivity
• Water is supplied through the small vertical tube
and the change in head (h) is monitored over
time.
• Rate of fall of water level in the vertical tube =
dh/dt
• Flow rate
Determination K: Falling Head Permeameter
•  Rate of fall of water level in the vertical tube =
dh/dt
• Flow rate

• Darcy Equation

(1) = (2)
Determination K: Falling Head Permeameter
 

2
 
𝐿𝑟 h1
𝐾 = 2 𝑙𝑛
𝑅 𝑡 h2 ( )
Determination K: Falling Head Permeameter
Exercise:
A 20 cm long field sample of silty, fine sand
with a diameter of 10 cm was tested using a
falling head permeameter. The falling-head
tube has a diameter of 3 cm and the initial
head is 8 cm. Over a time duration of 8
minutes, the head in the tube had fallen to 1
cm. What is the K for the sample (m/day)?
 Permeameter Measurements
 Based on a small disturbed sample – not be truly
representative of the actual hydraulic properties of
aquifer
 Heterogeneity and anisotrophy of aquifer – single point
estimation does not capture the complexities in the
hydraulic properties of the aquifer
 Preliminary indication of the ability of the aquifer to
transmit the stored water.
 Example
A field sample of an unconfined aquifer is packed
in a test cylinder of 50 cm length and 6 cm
diameter. The sample is tested for a period of 3
min under a constant head difference of 16.3 cm.
As a result, 45 cm3 of water is collected at the
outlet.
Determine the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer
sample.
Constant-head
Permeameter
cylinder length 50 cm
Diameter 6 cm
constant head difference 16.3 cm
water collected at the outlet 45 cm3
(over 3 min)
Exercise
The piezometric gradient of water flowing in a sand
aquifer was estimated as 0.01. The aquifer has K = 2
m/d. If the saturated depth of the aquifer is 15 m and its
width is 1 km, determine:
(a) Velocity of the groundwater flow in the aquifer
(b) the volumetric flow rate of the groundwater
(c) how long it takes the groundwater to move 500 m?
Hydraulic Conductivity
Hydraulic Conductivity
 Hydraulic Conductivity
Hazen Equation
C (shape factor)
K=C (d10)2 Very fine & fine sand: 40-80
For water
Medium & coarse sand: 80-120
C – shape factor
d10 in cm
K is given in cm/s
 Hydraulic Conductivity - Heterogeneity
 Effective Hydraulic Conductivity – We like to replace heterogeneous
blocks with analogous homogeneous ones
K1
VS. K1 K2
K2

 Replace with

Keff

 Are they the same for the two – how would you do it?
Hydraulic Conductivity - Heterogeneity
K1
K1 K2
K2

Keff
Keff
 Hydraulic Conductivity - Heterogeneity
 N parallel layers, each with
conductivity Ki of thickness bi

K1
K2

K3

KN
 Hydraulic Conductivity - Heterogeneity
N perpendicular to flow layers, each
with conductivity Ki of thickness bi

K11 K22 K33 K44

Groundwater flow

Most studies on aquifers are aimed at

determining the value of the hydraulic
conductivity, either in the laboratory
(using a disturbed sample) or in-situ in the
field.
 few terminologies…
Transmissivity (T) = Kb
(b - saturated thickness of aquifer)
Flow from the unit width of aquifer under a unit
hydraulic gradient.
 few terminologies (for unconfined aquifer)…
Specific yield (Sy): volume of water discharged from
a unit volume of an unconfined aquifer when water
table is lowered.
  ∆𝑉 𝑤
𝑆 𝑦=
𝐴 ∆h
 few terminologies (for unconfined aquifer)…
Specific yield (Sy): volume of water discharged from
a unit volume of an unconfined aquifer when water
table is lowered.
Specific retention (Sr): volume of water retained per
unit volume of aquifer after the specific yield.
Sy + Sr = n
 few terminologies (for confined aquifer)…
   Storage or specific storativity (Ss):
Specific
volume of water discharged from (or recharged
into) a confined aquifer per unit area per unit drop
in piezometric head.

amount of water released from (or recharged

into) the aquifer
V total volume of aquifer
change in piezometric head
 few terminologies (for confined aquifer)…
Specific Storage or specific storativity: volume of water
discharged from a confined aquifer per unit area per unit
drop in piezometric head.
Equivalent of specific yield..
Much less than specific yield of unconfined aquifer …(factor
of 1000 to 10,000)
for a given quantity of water withdrawal (or recharge), the change in piezometric
surface for a confined aquifer will be much larger than the corresponding change
in the water table elevation of an unconfined aquifer of same material
Governing equation for flow through
porous medium