Publication Date:
2014-10-20
Description:
We investigate the response of a laboratory aquifer submitted to artificial rainfall, with an emphasis on the early stage of a rain event. In this almost two-dimensional experiment, the infiltrating rainwater forms a groundwater reservoir which exits the aquifer through one side. The resulting outflow resembles a typical stream hydrograph: the water discharge increases rapidly during rainfall and decays slowly after the rain has stopped. The Dupuit-Boussinesq theory, based on Darcy's law and the shallow-water approximation, quantifies these two asymptotic regimes. At the early stage of a rainfall event, the discharge increases linearly with time, at a rate proportional to the rainfall rate to the power of 3/2. Long after the rain has stopped, it decreases as the squared inverse of time (Boussinesq, C. R. Acad. Sci., vol. 137, 1903, pp. 5-11). We compare these predictions with our experimental data. © Cambridge University Press 2014.
Print ISSN:
0022-1120
Electronic ISSN:
1469-7645
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
,
Physics
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