3 Groundwater Hydrology

3.1  INTRODUCTION
Hydrology is the study of water and addresses the occurrence, distribution, and
movement of water on the Earth. The science of occurrence, distribution, and move-
ment of water under the ground surface is referred to as groundwater hydrology.
The hydrologic cycle was introduced in the previous chapter. In hydrologic cycle,
groundwater has an extensive role and has been the subject of research for many
researchers. It became more important especially during and after the hydraulic
mission, the second half of nineteenth century, due to an exponential increase in
industrial activities. Industrial improvement created many pollution problems in sur-
face water that caused some of the surface water resources to become unsuitable for
certain purposes such as drinking and irrigation. Moreover, population increase and,
in consequence, augmentation in need for food production has led to a significant
increase in demands of water. Therefore, groundwater is now considered as a clear
supplementary source to supply increasing demands of water.

3.2  GROUNDWATER MOVEMENT

The subject of groundwater movement is quite complex. The movement of ground-
water will be discussed in this chapter in its simplest forms to illustrate the principles
involved. More complex groundwater models will be discussed in the next chapters.

3.2.1  Darcy’s Law

Darcy’s law is the basic empirical relationship governing the movement of groundwater
through a porous medium (Bouwer, 1978; De Wiest, 1965; Freeze and Cherry, 1979;
Todd, 1980). Imagine water flowing at a rate Q through a cylinder of cross-sectional area
A packed with sand and having piezometers at a distance L apart, as shown in Figure 3.1.
Henry Darcy in 1856 determined the velocity of water flowing through this cylinder as

h1 − h2
v = −K = Ki (3.1)
Δl

where
v is the superficial flow velocity, m/s
K is the hydraulic conductivity, m/s
i is the hydraulic gradient, −dh/dl, m/m
h1 is the height of water in the upper piezometer, m
h2 is the height of water in the lower piezometer, m
Δl is the distance between piezometers, m

61
62 Groundwater Hydrology: Engineering, Planning, and Management

Q Δh
p1/γ

Sa
col nd
um
n
Cr
oss
z1 -se
cti
on
al a
rea
=A z

Datum Q

FIGURE 3.1  Pressure distribution and head loss in flow through a sand column.

The minus sign in Darcy’s law arises from the fact that the head loss is negative.
The discharge through a cross-sectional area of an aquifer is given by

Q
= Ki ⇒ Q = KiA (3.2a)
A

or

q = Kib (3.2b)

where
Q is the hydraulic discharge, m3/s
A is the cross-sectional area, m2
q is the discharge in unit width of the aquifer, m2/s
b is the thickness of the aquifer, m

It should be noted that the application of Equation 3.2 is based on the assumption
that the porous medium is homogenous and is saturated with water. The application
of Equation 3.2 is illustrated in Example 3.1.
The porosity n has influence on hydraulic conductivity K. In well-sorted sand or
fractured rock formations, samples with higher n generally also have higher K. For
example, clay-rich soils usually have higher porosities than sandy or gravelly soils
but lower hydraulic conductivities.
Using the porosity of the medium and Darcy’s law (Q = Av), the real velocity of
water in a porous medium can be calculated. Regarding the fact that the water moves
through the pores in this medium, the value of average velocity (v) in the mentioned
relation is not true and the equation should be modified to Q = Apvreal. Ap is the area
Groundwater Hydrology 63

of pores, and vreal is the average velocity of water through the pores. Therefore, the
average velocity of water through the soil and the average velocity of water through
the pores have a direct relation with each other:

Q = Av Ap
⇒v= vreal ⇒ v = nvreal (3.3)
Q = Ap vreal A

The above relation implies that the velocity in Darcy’s law has lower value than the
real velocity of water through the soil.
The pure velocity of groundwater is obtained from dividing the superficial flow
velocity by the porosity of the porous medium.

Example 3.1

In Figure 3.2, determine the superficial and true pore velocities of flow through the
porous medium as well as the time of flow from the upper to the lower reservoir.
Assume the following data are applicable:

Cross-sectional area A = 100 m2

Head loss Δh = 35 m
Length of flow path ΔL = 1500 m
Hydraulic conductivity K = 7.5 × 10 −4 m/s
Porosity of porous medium n = 0.45

Solution
(a) Superficial velocity

dh −35 m
v = −K = −(7.5 × 10 −4 m/s) = 1.75 × 10 −5 m/s
dl 1500 m

Upper reservoir
h1

Ground surface
∆h
Co
nf
in
in
g

Lower reservoir
lay

h2
er

Impermeable strata

FIGURE 3.2  Two hypothetical reservoirs connected by a subsurface permeable stratum.

64 Groundwater Hydrology: Engineering, Planning, and Management

2500
er
Riv
2000 15
10
13
Y (m)

14
12
1500 1 65
66 9 11
67 7
1000
68
3 69 70 6 71 4
8
2
500 5

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

X (m)

FIGURE 3.3  Contour representation of the potentiometric surface for a confined aquifer
being discharged into a river.

(b) Pore velocity

v p = v /n = 1.75 × 10 −5 / 0.45 = 3.89 × 10 −5 m/s

(c) The time of travel

1500 m
t= = 3.86 × 107 s = 446.4 days
3.89 × 10 −5 m/s

Example 3.2

Figure 3.3 shows a contour representation of the

potentiometric surface for a  confined aquifer being
discharged into a river. Hydraulic heads in differ- TABLE 3.1
ent locations were measured at 15 monitoring wells.
Hydraulic Head Made
Table 3.1 presents these measurements. The aquifer
is considered homogeneous and isotropic and has an at Five Streamlines
average thickness of 18 m with a porosity of 0.34 and Streamline l (m) Δh (m)
hydraulic conductivity of 2.6 × 10 −4 m/s.
Assuming steady-state conditions, estimate the 1 900 −4
average hydraulic gradient in the aquifer. 2 1000 −4
Calculate the rate of water discharge from the aqui- 3 1150 −6
fer to the stream. 4 1300 −7
Determine the time it would take for a hypothetical 5 1200 −8
tracer injected in Well #11 to reach the river.
Groundwater Hydrology 65

Solution
(a) The hydraulic gradient at each stream line is

Streamline l (m) Δh (m) Δh/l

1 900 −4 −4.44 × 10−3
2 1000 −4 −4.00 × 10−3
3 1150 −6 −5.22 × 10−3
4 1300 −7 −5.38 × 10−3
5 1200 −8 −6.67 × 10−3

The average gradient is therefore: i = 5.14 × 10 −3

(b) The rate of water discharge from the aquifer to the stream is

q = bKi = 18 m × 2.6 × 10 −4 m/s × 5.14 × 10 −3 m/m

m3 /s m3 /day
= 2.41× 10 −5 = 2.08
m m

(c) Well #11 is located on line 69. The tracer must pass lines 65, 66, 67, and 68
to reach the river. Therefore, the hydraulic gradient through these lines must
be calculated. Regarding Figure 3.3, the coordinates of well 11 are approxi-
mately (2050, 1150) and the coordinates of the point that the flow line inter-
sects with line 68 are almost (2050, 1875). Thus, the distance between these
two lines is 725 m. The average pore velocity along the flow line intersect-
ing Well # 11 can then be calculated as

K Δh 2.6 × 10 −4 4
vp = − . = × = 4.22 × 10 −6 m/s
n Δl 0.34 725

To reach the river the tracer should travel approximately 1100 m, which is
the distance between well 11 and the intersection point of the flow line and
river (2050, 2250). The travel time can thus be calculated as

d 1100 m
t tr = = ≅ 2.61× 108 s ≅ 8.27 years
v 4.22 × 10 −6 m/s

3.2.1.1  Validity of Darcy’s Law

In laminar flow, the velocity is proportional to the first power of the hydraulic gradi-
ent. Hence, it is acceptable to believe that Darcy’s law can be applied to laminar flow
in porous media. A reasonable criterion to determine whether the flow is laminar or
turbulent is the Reynold’s number. Therefore, this number can be considered as a
factor to establish the limits of flow described by Darcy’s law. Reynold’s number is
expressed as

ρvD
NR = (3.4)
μ
66 Groundwater Hydrology: Engineering, Planning, and Management

where
ρ is the fluid density
v is the velocity
D is the diameter (of pipe)
μ is the viscosity of the fluid

It can be inferred that the above equation has been adopted for flow in pipe. To be
able to apply this equation to a porous medium, Darcy velocity and an effective grain
size d10 are substituted for v and D, respectively.
It has been proven experimentally that Darcy’s law is valid for NR < 1 and it is
not that far away for up to NR = 10 (Ahmed and Sunada, 1969). Considering most
natural groundwater flow occurs with Reynold’s number less than 1, Darcy’s law is
applicable to groundwater movement.

3.2.2  Hydraulic Head

In a groundwater system in saturated zone, hydraulic head at a point (Figure 3.4) can
be expressed as

z+ p
h= (3.5)
ρg

where
z is the elevation head above a datum plane (m)
p is the fluid pressure at the point applied by the column of water above the point
(Pa)
ρ is the water density (kg/m3)
g is the gravity constant (m/s2)
ρg expresses the specific weight of water (γ)

In groundwater studies, fluid potential and hydraulic head are equivalent; how-
ever, hydraulic head is most commonly used. Water can flow from a region of lower
pressure to a region of higher pressure if the total head at the starting point is greater
than that at the ending point.
In the field of petroleum and natural gas engineering, pressure is generally used in
place of head because pressures at great depths are normally so great and elevation
heads are often insignificant.

Well Ground level

Water table
p
γ p
h=z+
γ
z
Datum level z = 0

FIGURE 3.4  Illustration of hydraulic head.

Groundwater Hydrology 67

3.2.3  Hydraulic Conductivity

The hydraulic conductivity is defined in two separate parts considering the satura-
tion or unsaturation status of the media.

3.2.3.1  Hydraulic Conductivity in Saturated Media

Hydraulic conductivity, K, contains the properties for both medium and fluid. It can
be used for evaluating water transmissivity in a porous medium. Hydraulic conduc-
tivity of a saturated media is defined as

γ
Ks = k (3.6)
μ

where
Ks is the saturated hydraulic conductivity, cm/s or ft/day
k = Cd2 is the specific or intrinsic permeability
C is the constant of proportionality, unitless
d is the grain size of porous medium, m
γ is the specific weight of water, kN/m3
μ is the dynamic viscosity of water, N s/m2
The physical meaning of hydraulic conductivity is stated as “the volume of liquid
flowing perpendicular to a unit area of porous medium per unit time under the influ-
ence of a hydraulic gradient of unity.” Earlier literature described this phenomenon
as field coefficient of permeability with units of gallons per day per square feet. This
name and definition are now rarely used. Table 3.2 lists the hydraulic conductivities
of several lithologies. It can be also obtained by Table 3.3.

Example 3.3

The saturated hydraulic conductivity of a coarse sand measured in a laboratory at

20°C is 2.74 × 10 −4 m/s. What is the intrinsic permeability?

At 20°C : ρw = 998.29 kg/m3 , μw = 1.003 × 10 −3 kg/ms

μw 1.003 × 10 −3 kg/ms
k= Ks = × 2.74 × 10 −4 m/s
ρw g 998.29 kg/m3 × 9.81m/s2

= 2.81× 10 −11 m2 = 2.81× 10 −7 cm2

3.2.3.2  Hydraulic Conductivity in Unsaturated Media

In unsaturated media, the hydraulic gradient, molecular attraction, and surface ten-
sion influence water. Therefore, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is a function
of the pressure head, Ψ (always negative in unsaturated media). The unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity is shown as K(Ψ).
The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is at its maximum when the infiltration
capacity is reached. In dry condition, water will not flow any significant distance