MODIFIED THEORY FOR SEEPAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SINGLE GRAVITY WELL

A MODIFIED THEORY IS PRESENTED THAT IS APPLICABLE TO DETERMINING THE STEADY-STATE FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF A SINGLE VERTICAL GRAVITY WELL FULLY PENETRATING A HOMOGENEOUS, HORIZONTALLY ORIENTED CROSS-ANISTROPIC POROUS MEDIUM. THE THEORY DEVELOPED IS BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE PROFILE OF THE EQUIPOTENTIAL SURFACES ARE GIVEN BY NONCONCENTRIC CIRCULAR ARCS, AND THIS ASSUMPTION IS FOUND TO ELIMINATE THE CONTRADICTION RESULTING FROM PREVIOUS ASSUMPTIONS BY OTHERS THAT THESE EQUIPOTENTIAL SURFACES WERE ARCS OF CONCENTRIC CIRCLES. THIS LATTER ASSUMPTION OF CONCENTRIC-ARC EQUIPOTENTIAL SURFACES IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ERRONEOUS APPROXIMATION THAT THE VELOCITY IS CONSTANT ALONG A GIVEN EQUIPOTENTIAL SURFACE. ALSO, THE CONCEPT OF A CRITICAL DEPTH, AS ADVANCED BY OTHERS, IS FOUND TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE MODIFIED THEORY. THE SHAPE OF THE WATER TABLE IS CALCULATED FROM THE MODIFIED THEORY BY MEANS OF A DIGITAL COMPUTER, AND THE RESULTS ARE FOUND TO AGREE VERY WELL WITH THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA AND NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS OF OTHER INVESTIGATORS. /AUTHOR/