Seepage Face in Steady-State Groundwater Flow between Two Water Bodies

Abstract

An implicit solution determining the seepage-face dimension formed in steady-state flow through an aquifer connecting two water bodies is achieved based on the Dupuit assumption and conservation-of-flow-rate considerations. The aquifer features sloping upstream and downstream boundaries. The solution approach presented here yields the seepage-face dimension, the flow rate through the aquifer, the geometry of the phreatic surface, and travel times along streamlines. The Dupuit-based groundwater flow estimates compare well with numerical solutions calculated for the exact groundwater flow problem.