Darcys

Law
Philip B. Bedient
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rice University

Darcys Law
Darcys law provides an accurate
description of the flow of ground
water in almost all hydrogeologic
environments.

Darcys 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

Hydraulic Conductivity
K represents a measure of the ability for
flow through porous media:
K is highest for gravels - 0.1 to 1 cm/sec
K is high for sands - 10-2 to 10-3 cm/sec
K is moderate for silts - 10-4 to 10-5
cm/sec
K is lowest for clays - 10-7 to 10-9 cm/sec

Darcys Experimental
Setup:
Headlossh1h2determinesflowrate

Darcys Law
Therefore,

V = K (h/L)
and since
Q= VA
Q= KA(dh/dL)

Conditions
In General, Darcys Law holds

for:

1. Saturated flow and unsaturated

flow
2. Steady-state and transient flow 3.
Flow in aquifers and aquitards 4. Flow in
homogeneous and
heteogeneous systems
5. Flow in isotropic or anisotropic media 6.
Flow in rocks and granular media

Darcy Velocity
V is the specific discharge (Darcy velocity).
() indicates that V occurs in the direction of
the decreasing head.
Specific discharge has units of velocity.
The specific discharge is a macroscopic
concept, and is easily measured. It should be
noted that Darcys velocity is different .

Darcy Velocity
...from the microscopic velocities
associated with the actual paths if
individual particles of water as they
wind their way through the grains of
sand.
The microscopic velocities are real, but
are probably impossible to measure.

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.

Darcy & Seepage Velocity

From the Continuity Eqn:

Q = A vD = AV Vs
Where:
Q = flow rate
A = 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

Equations of
Ground Water Flow
Description of ground water flow is based
on:
1. Darcys Law
2. Continuity Equation - describes
conservation of fluid mass
during flow through a porous
medium; results in a partial
differential equation of flow.

Example of Darcys 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 is 5 km.

Calculate:
a) the rate of flow through the aquifer
(b) the 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(5)(1000) = 15 x 104 m2
Hydraulic gradient =
(55-50)/1000 = 5 x 10-3
Rate of Flow for K = 50 m/day
Q = (50 m/day) (75 x 101
m2) = 37,500 m3/day
Darcy Velocity:
V = Q/A = (37,500m3/day) / (15
x 104 m2) = 0.25m/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.

Limitations of the
Darcian Approach
1. For Reynolds Number, Re, > 10 where the flow is
turbulent, as in the immediate vicinity of pumped
wells.

2. Where water flows through extremely fine-grained

materials (colloidal clay)

Darcys 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
ConfiningLayer

Example 2
Consider a 1-ft length of river (and channel).
Q = KA [(h1 h2) / L]
Where:
A = (30 x 1) = 30 ft2
= (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

ConstantHead

FallingHead

Constant head Permeameter

Apply Darcys 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

Darcys Law
DarcysLawcanbeusedtocomputeflowrateinalmost
anyaquifersystemwhereheadsandareasareknown
fromwells.