The problem of the groundwater dynamics and water balance of a confined aquifer in the aquifer system has been solved in previous studies, whereas that in the aquitard adjacent to the confined aquifer has seldom been considered. In reality, the groundwater dynamics of the aquitard are closely related to the exploitation of groundwater resources, groundwater contamination, underground storage utilization and land subsidence. In this paper, an analytical solution is derived to describe the drawdown variation in the aquitard when the head in the adjacent confined aquifer declines by a constant value. The characteristics of groundwater dynamics and water balance of the aquitard are analyzed using a dimensionless analytical solution. There is obvious delayed behavior in the response of groundwater dynamics in the aquitard, which is characterized by the delay index 0 . The delayed behavior in the response of groundwater dynamics is not only dependent on the properties of the aquitard, but also proportional to the square of the thickness of the aquitard. The law of the delayed release of water is described in terms of the ratio of the delayed release of water. A water balance equation for the aquitard is established. Three stages of the water balance and the corresponding characteristics are presented with the water balance curves of the aquitard. The analytical solution is given to analyze the flux per unit horizontal area of the aquitard. The hydrogeological parameters of the aquitard, namely the hydraulic conductivity, specific storativity and hydraulic diffusivity, are estimated according to type-curve fitting between the analytical solution and observed flux. The parameters are identified and validated in an experiment.
aquitard, water balance, parameter identification, delayed release of water
Citation:Zhou Z F, Guo Q N, Dou Z. Delayed drainage of aquitard in response to sudden change in groundwater level in adjacent confined aquifer: Analytical and experimental studies.
The relationship between the longitudinal dispersion (DL) and Peclet number (Pe) is crucial for predicting and simulating tracer through the variable‐aperture fracture. In this study, the roughness of the self‐affine fracture wall was decomposed into primary roughness (relatively large‐scale waviness) and secondary roughness (relatively small‐scale waviness) by a multiscaled wavelet analysis technique. Based on the complete dispersion mechanism (diffusion, macrodispersion, and Taylor dispersion) in the variable‐aperture fracture, three relationships (second‐order, power‐law, and linear relationships) between the DL and Pe were investigated at large and small scales, respectively. Our results showed that the primary roughness mostly controlled the Taylor dispersion mechanism, whereas the secondary roughness was a dominant factor for the macrodispersion mechanism. Increasing the Hurst exponent and removing the secondary roughness led to the decreasing range of Pe where macrodispersion mechanism dominated the solute transport. It was found that estimating the DL from the power‐law relationship based on Taylor dispersion theory resulted in considerable errors, even in the range of Pe where the Taylor dispersion mechanism dominated. The exponent of the power‐law relationship increased as the secondary roughness was removed. Analysing the linear relationship between the DL and Pe revealed that the longitudinal dispersivity αL increased linearly. However, this linear increase became weak as the Taylor dispersion mechanism dominated. In the range of Pe where the macrodispersion mechanism dominated, increasing the Hurst exponent caused the increase of αL and the secondary roughness played a significant role in enhancing the αL. As the Taylor dispersion mechanism dominated, the αL was insensitive to the influence of multiscale roughness in variable‐aperture fractures.
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