Subsurface Hydrology - CE54400

Credit Hours: 3

Instructor(s): Rao S Govindaraju

Phone: (765) 496-3402

Email: govind@purdue.edu

Office: CIVL 1141B

Web: Instructor Homepage


Learning Objective: After completing this course, successful students will be able to:

Part 1

  • Describe the global and local water balance and quantify groundwater recharge from hydrographs
  • Identify underground waters, describe the properties of aquifers, and recall their classification
  • Explain and apply Darcy's law
  • Derive the groundwater flow equations, apply their solutions to solve practical problems
  • Understand the vadose zone and the influence of soil water content on groundwater recharge

Part 2

  • Describe the steady state flow to wells in confined and unconfined aquifers
  • Describe the unsteady flow to wells in confined, semi-confined, and unconfined aquifers
  • Explain slug tests
  • Model aquifers and wells
  • Explain how well fields work

Part 3

  • Describe the advection and dispersion transport processes in porous media
  • Solve advection and dispersion
  • Solve reactive transport problems
  • Apply transport models to real world problems

Topics Covered: Basic wave mechanics (wave descriptors, wave propagation, wave shoaling and refraction, and surf zone processes); water level fluctuations (storm surge, tides, and longer-timescale processes); breakwater design (armor stability, run-up, overtopping, transmission); sediment transport (wave- and current-caused); shoreline protection measures.

Prerequisites: Undergraduate courses in hydraulics, differential equations and computer sciences are recommended but not required.

Homework: 12 homework assignments comprising 67% of the final grade.

Exams: 3 exams comprising 33% of the final grade.

Textbooks: Applied Hydrogeology, C.W. Fetter, Pearson Education 0-13-88239-0