One-dimensional unsteady inertial flow in phreatic aquifers induced by a sudden change of the boundary head

We are examining the classical problem of unsteady flow in a phreatic semi-infinite aquifer, induced by sudden rise or drawdown of the boundary head, by taking into account the influence of the inertial effects. We demonstrate that for short times the inertial effects are dominant and the equation system describing the flow behavior can be reduced to a single ordinary differential equation. This equation is solved both numerically by the Runge-Kutta method and analytically by the Adomian’s decomposition approach and an adequate polynomial-exponential approximation as well. The influence of the viscous term, occurring for longer times, is also taken into account by solving the full Forchheimer equation by a finite difference approach. It is also demonstrated that as for the Darcian flow, for the case of small fluctuations of the water table, the computation procedure can be simplified by using a linearized form of the mass balance equation. Compact analytical expressions for the computation of the water stored or extracted from an aquifer, including viscous corrections are also developed.