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Shape of a streamline water table near inflow and outflow boundaries
Author(s) -
Boast Charles W.
Publication year - 1977
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/wr013i002p00325
Subject(s) - inflow , water table , outflow , hodograph , boundary (topology) , table (database) , geology , geometry , surface (topology) , flow (mathematics) , hydrology (agriculture) , free surface , mechanics , geotechnical engineering , groundwater , mathematics , computer science , physics , mathematical analysis , oceanography , data mining
A streamline water table is usually pictured to leave an inflow boundary perpendicular to the surface and to approach an outflow boundary tangential to the surface for vertical surfaces or for inclined surfaces with the porous medium ‘below’ the surface. The hodograph solution for the problem of flow through a vertical walled dam proves that theoretically, the water table streamline leaves the inflow boundary horizontally and approaches the outflow boundary vertically but shows that at a practical scale the water table meets the boundaries at finite nonzero slopes. The actual water table shape deviates considerably from the usual way that the water table is sketched. The cause of the difference lies in an intuitive but incorrect assumption that the slope of the water table does not change dramatically near the endpoints of the water table. Supplement is available with entire article on microfiche. Order from American Geophysical Union, 1909 K Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20006. Document W77‐002; $1.00. Payment must accompany order.