Question
Transmissivity of an aquifer is the product of ________
The correct answer is
saturated thickness and hydraulic conductivity
Aquifer Transmissivity Definition
Transmissivity (T) quantifies how easily water can move through the entire saturated thickness of an aquifer.
It is a crucial parameter in understanding groundwater flow and well hydraulics.
Calculating Transmissivity
The transmissivity of an aquifer is calculated as the product of two key properties:
- Hydraulic conductivity (K): This measures how easily water can flow through the aquifer material itself (e.g., sand, gravel).
- Saturated thickness (b): This is the vertical depth of the aquifer where the pores are completely filled with water.
The formula is:
$ T = K \times b $
Based on this definition, transmissivity is the product of saturated thickness and hydraulic conductivity.
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Important Questions from Aquifer Properties
- An aquifer has a surface area of 100 km$^2$. With no recharge, assume that pumping out 2 $\times$ 10$^7$ m$^3$ of ground water resulted in a drop of the water table by 6 m. If the aquifer has a specific retention of 15 %, then the porosity of the aquifer is _____ % (rounded off to one decimal place).
- A well penetrates an unconfined aquifer. The water level (i.e., head) in the well prior to pumping is 25 m. After a long period of pumping at a constant rate of 0.05 m$^3$/s, the drawdowns at distances of 50 m and 150 m from the well are observed to be 3 m and 1.2 m, respectively.
The hydraulic conductivity of the unconfined aquifer is ______ $\times 10^{-4}$ m/s (rounded off to two decimal places).
Consider $\pi$ = 3.14. - A confined aquifer with a uniform saturated thickness of 10 m has hydraulic conductivity of $10^{-2}$ cm/s. Considering a steady flow, the transmissivity of the aquifer in $m^2/day$ is _______ (rounded off to one decimal place).
- A stratified confined aquifer consists of three parallel homogeneous and isotropic horizontal layers with thickness of 10 m, 5 m and 5 m. The layers have the same width. The hydraulic conductivities of the strata are 15 m/day, 20 m/day and 30 m/day, respectively. The water flow follows Darcy's law and is parallel to the strata. Considering the same hydraulic gradient for all the layers, the effective hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer is ________ m/day. [in integer]
If $d$ is the depth of an aquifer through which water is flowing, then the relationship between permeability $K$ and transmissibility (also known as transmissivity) $T$ is given by ________.
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