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Screening model for the contamination of a well in a uniform flow field
Author(s) -
Kennedy Christopher,
Lennox William C.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/1999wr900172
Subject(s) - streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines , hydraulic conductivity , contamination , dilution , limiting , flow (mathematics) , conductivity , mechanics , boundary (topology) , boundary value problem , environmental science , field (mathematics) , hydrology (agriculture) , soil science , mathematics , geology , mathematical analysis , physics , geotechnical engineering , thermodynamics , engineering , ecology , biology , pure mathematics , mechanical engineering , quantum mechanics , soil water
Explicit solutions are developed for the steady state concentration of a contaminant at a water supply well, because of a continuous source within the capture zone. The solutions are based on the streamline equation for a well in a uniform flow field [ Todd , 1959] and account for the dilution of contaminated waters at the well where streamlines are converging. Integration along a streamline also yields expressions for the travel time and distance to the well, which may be used to calculate the concentration of an exponentially decaying contaminant. In a sensitivity analysis with fixed source location, travel times decrease with higher values of hydraulic conductivity down to a minimum value. This minimum is given by a hydraulic conductivity just under the limiting value that places the source on the capture zone boundary.