Ground-Water Recharge Strip Basin Experiments

The problem of recharging a strip basin to a horizontal water table overlying an impervious base was formulated using the saturated flow equations. From this formulation the number of dimensionless variables that determine a dimensionless water table rise were identified using the exact or potential theory and an approximate Dupuit-Forcheimer (D-F) theory. Experiments performed in a 5-m-long sand model are described in detail and the results presented and compared with the linear D-F theory for the rising portion of the experiments. As a dimensionless recharge rate was increased, an expected systematic deviation from the D-F theory that is presumably a result of the invalidity of the D-F assumption for such deep flows. Experimental results are presented in the form of dimensionless graphs and the tabulated results are available upon request.