Question

For a productive alluvial aquifer with hydraulic conductivity = 105 m/day and hydraulic gradient = 0.01, the flow rate is ________ m/day. \text{[round off to 2 decimal places]}

Hint:

To calculate flow rate, apply Darcy’s law, where the hydraulic gradient, conductivity, and cross-sectional area are key factors.

Answer 1

Correct Answer: 1

The flow rate \( Q \) for an aquifer is calculated using Darcy’s law: \[ Q = K \times A \times i \] where: - \( K = 105 \, \text{m/day} \) is the hydraulic conductivity,
- \( A \) is the cross-sectional area of the aquifer,
- \( i = 0.01 \) is the hydraulic gradient.
To calculate \( A \), we assume a unit width for simplicity, and thus \( A = 1 \, \text{m}^2 \). Therefore, the flow rate is: \[ Q = 105 \times 1 \times 0.01 = 1.05 \, \text{m/day}. \] Rounding off to two decimal places, the flow rate is: \[ \boxed{1.05 \, \text{m/day}}. \]