Hydro4X Theory of Subsurface Hydrology

Instructor - Dr. Mohammad Afzal Shadab (Princeton University)

Project maintained by mashadab Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Course Description

This course will cover the theoretical concepts in subsurface hydrology that include infiltration and groundwater dynamics. The videos will be posted on youtube each Sunday and will be linked here along with the course notes.

Syllabus

The course content will be guided by research problems where students will work on conceptual, theoretical and occasionally numerical examples.

Class room and time

Office hours

Additional course websites:

hi

Introduction

Lecture 1: Introduction

Basics, Water cycle, Volume averaging, Multi-phase flows

Fundamentals of subsurface hydrology

Lecture 2: General balance equation derivation, Curvilinear coordinate transformation

Lecture 3: Darcy’s experiment, Scaling argument, soil hydraulic parameters

Lecture 4: Derivation and discussion on Richards equation (PDE type, non-dimensionalization), Capillary forces and soil type

Theory of infiltration

Lecture 5: Introduction, effects of evapotranspiration and capillarity

Lecture 6: Diffusion limit (parabolic PDE)

Lecture 7: Kinematic wave limit (hyperbolic PDE, method of characteristics),Effect of subsurface heterogeneity

Lecture 8: Green-Ampt approach

Theory of perching

Lecture 9: Theory of perching

Theory of groundwater dynamics

Lecture 10: Introduction to types of aquifer: confined and unconfined, High vs low aspect ratio aquifers and seepage face

Lecture 11: Derivation of vertically integrated groundwater model, Analytic solutions of quasi-two-dimensional, unconfined aquifers: steady drainage, sudden rainfall, late-stage drainage

Lecture 12: Streamfunction, potential function, and groundwater age

Advanced topics in subsurface hydrology

Lecture 13: Snow/firn hydrology (inclusion of thermodynamics)

Lecture 14: Coupled subsurface hydrology and reactive-transport modeling

Lecture 15: Class review & Discussion