Past exam of the topics in fluid mechanics course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 2 / b / ii / Solution

The condition $f(0)=0$ means the river maintains the water table at the impermeable base level: $h(0,t)=0$. The liquid is exposed to atmospheric pressure there. It does not imply zero drainage, because $h_x$ may be singular at the outlet.

Far from the river, lateral drainage has not significantly affected storage. Rainfall simply fills pore volume, so the dimensional height is $h\sim Rt/\varphi$. In the dimensionless variables this is $h\sim t$, giving $f(\infty )=1$.

Although the physical aquifer is finite, these boundary conditions describe its early similarity solution before the drainage-affected region reaches $x=L$. In dimensional variables its horizontal extent is of order $\sqrt{KR}t/\varphi$, so the semi-infinite approximation requires $t\ll T=\varphi L/\sqrt{KR}$.