Pipe Flow Models of a Kentucky Limestone Aquifer

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Publication Date

7-1-1974

Publication Title

Groundwater

Volume Number

12

Issue Number

4

Abstract

A digital computer program which simulates a limestone aquifer as a pipe network was written and compared with the Sinkhole Plain aquifer of west‐central Kentucky. Model 1, which considers the flow in the network to be laminar, yielded values of head, flow in the network, and discharge at the bounding streams which are in reasonably good agreement with field observations. The over‐all hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer appears to be about 5600 meinzers if the zone of active flow is 30 meters thick, but the northeastern portion of the aquifer probably has a higher transmissivity. The indicated location of the principal ground‐water divide agrees well with data derived from wells and from tracing underground‐water flows. A second model (Model 2) was constructed which considers flow in the network to be turbulent. Although this model yields values which differ from Model 1, the differences are too small to allow the mode of flow in the aquifer to be distinguished using observational data.

Keywords

Karst, Aquifers, Groundwater flow, Hydrologic models, Hydraulic conductivity

Document Type

Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1974.tb03023.x

Language

English

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