Flow of Water

Through Soils
Lecture 6
Darcy’s Law
• Darcy's law, mathematical relationship discovered
(1856) by the French engineer Henri Darcy that
governs the flow of groundwater through granular
media or the flow of other fluids through permeable
material, such as petroleum through sandstone or
limestone.
Darcy’s Law

• Darcy’s law provides an

accurate description of the flow
of ground water in almost all
hydrogeologic environments.
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
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

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 = AV 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 VS = VD / n
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(5000) = 150,000 m2
• Hydraulic gradient =
(55-50)/1000 = 5 x 10-3
• Darcy Velocity:
V = ki = (50 m/day) (5 x 10-3) =
0.25m/day
• Rate of Flow for K = 50 m/day
Q = (150,000 m2) (0.25 m/day) =
37,500 m3/day
•
And • Seepage Velocity:
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.
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

Confining Layer Aquifer

30 ft
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

Youtube videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xvi6
5SL0Q
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaPjIv
CsfFI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSiSf
SPkMc
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
Coefficient of Permeability
 Permeability in Stratified Soils

q = kiA ky
q = k x iH = ( k1 H 1 + k 2 H 2 +  k n H n )i
k1 H 1 + k 2 H 2 +  k n H n
kx =
H H1 k1

H2 k2 kx

H3 k3
 Permeability in Stratified Soils
v y = k y i = k1i1 = k 2i1 =  = k n in ky
 Assume the velocity of each layer is equal
iH = i1 H1 + i2 H 2 +  + in H n
 Head loss is the sum of head losses in all layers H1 k1
i H + i H +  + in H n
i= 1 1 2 2
H
k i k i k i H2 k2
i1 = y i2 = y i3 = y  kx
k1 k2 k3
 k yi  k i k i H3
  H1 +  y  H 2 +  +  y  H n k3
i= 1   k2   kn 
k
H

(k y i ) Hk 1 + Hk 2 +  + Hk n 
i=  1 2 n 

H
H
ky =
H1 H 2 H
+ ++ n
k1 k2 kn
 Example
• A nonhomogeneous soil 1.5 m Kx = 1.2 x 10-3 cm/s
consisting of layers of soil Ky = 2.4 x 10-4 cm/s

with different permeabilities. Kx = 2.8 x 10-4 cm/s

2.0 m
Ky = 3.1 x 10-5 cm/s
• Average coefficient of
permeability in the horizontal
direction and vertical Kx = 5.5 x 10-5 cm/s
2.5 m Ky = 4.7 x 10-6 cm/s
direction
 Example
k1 H 1 + k 2 H 2 + k3 H 3
kx =
H
(1.2  10 −3 cm / s )(1.5m) + (2.8  10 − 4 cm / s )( 2.0m) + (5.5  10 −5 cm / s )( 2.5m)
=
1 .5 m + 2 .0 m + 2 .5 m
= 4.16  10 − 4 cm / s

H
ky =
( H 1 / k1 ) + ( H 2 / k 2 ) + ( H 3 / k3 )
1 .5 m + 2 .0 m + 2 .5 m
=
 1 .5 m   2 .0 m   2 .5 m 
 −4  +  −5  +  −6 
 2.4  10 cm / s   3.1 10 cm / s   4.7  10 cm / s 
= 9.96  10 −6 cm / s
 Question

Quantity ?
Flow Nets and Seepage
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
Flow Nets
 Flow Nets and Seepage
Flow Line

q = kiA 
Flow Line y
h = drop in head
h
q = flow rate

q = k
h y
y = kh  = 1
Flow Line
x q
x x
h
h =
Nd Flow Channel

(N d is number of equpotenti al increment )

h
q = kh = k

Nd
q
q=

Nf
q kh khN f
= → q=
N f Nd Nd
Example

khN f
q=
Nd
k = ( 4.8  10 −3 cm / s )(1in / 2.54cm)(1 ft / 12in ) = 1.57  10 − 4 ft / s
h = 12 ft − 3 ft = 9 ft
Nf =5
Nd = 9
(1.57  10 − 4 ft / s )(9 ft )(5)
q= = 7.85  10 − 4 ft 3 / s perfoot of sheet pile
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