Off-campus South Dakota State University users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your South Dakota State University ID and password.

Non-South Dakota State University users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.

Yiming Li

Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

1994

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Agricultural Engineering

First Advisor

Shu-Tung Chu

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of aquifer recharge is essential for development of an effective strategy to protect groundwater from potential contamination. Field evaluation of an aquifer recharge model is scarcely seen in the literature. In this research, a one-dimensional aquifer recharge model was developed to estimate matric potentials at different soil depths in the vadose zone and pressure heads under the water table during and after rainfall events. The performance of the model was evaluated by field data which were available from the South Dakota Water Resources Institute. A porous media flow equation for transient saturated-unsaturated flow developed by Freeze (1971) was used as the governing equation in the model. A method described by Chu (1992) was employed to provide a solution of the onedimensional version of the Freeze equation. Soil water retention curves for soil profile layers were described by the Brooks and Corey (1964) model. Model provided a good prediction on water table level during and after rainfall. Most of model results for estimates of matric potential in vadose zone match field data quite well. The reasons causing the failure of match in some cases were analyzed.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Artificial recharge of groundwater -- Mathematical models -- Evaluation
Groundwater flow -- Mathematical models -- Evaluation
Aquifers

Format

application/pdf

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Download

Share

COinS