Past exam of the topics in fluid mechanics course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 2 / c (Drought recession)

Return to dimensional variables. The river at base level imposes the drained boundary condition, while the right-hand end is impermeable:As long as the right-hand end remains wet, the latter is $h_x(L,t)=0$. The initial condition for the drought is the height profile inherited at $t=t^{\ast }$; stopping rainfall changes the forcing but does not instantaneously remove stored water.

With $R=0$, substitute $h=X(x)T(t)$ into the dimensional Boussinesq equation for an unconfined aquifer:For a positive draining profile, take $\lambda >0$. Normalize $T(t^{\ast })=1$, so $X$ has the dimensions of height. The temporal ordinary differential equation integrates toThe spatial ordinary differential equation and boundary conditions areHere $\lambda$ has units of inverse length with this normalization. The scale freedom between $X$ and $T$ is fixed by the chosen value $T(t^{\ast })=1$; the amplitude of $X$, and hence $\lambda$, must be matched to the available water.

This separable aquifer drawdown is exact if the inherited height profile has the separated spatial shape. For a general rainfall-generated initial condition, it describes the late drought regime; it cannot reproduce an arbitrary profile at the instant rainfall stops merely by choosing one temporal constant.

Let $J_X={\lim }_{x\downarrow 0}X(x)X^{\prime }(x)>0$. The spatial ordinary differential equation gives $(X{X}^{\prime }{)}^{\prime }=-\lambda X$, so its leading outlet behavior isAgain this is a square-root drainage boundary. For the separable aquifer drawdown, the dimensional drainage flux isEquivalently, with ${\tau }_d=\varphi /(K\lambda )$, it is $Q_0(t^{\ast })[1+(t-t^{\ast })/{\tau }_d{]}^{-2}$ for an exact separated profile. Integrating the spatial ordinary differential equation gives $J_X=\lambda {\int }_0^{L}Xdx$. This verifies the global mass conservation checkThus the late drainage flux follows an inverse-square power law, while stored water decays inversely with time.

The aquifer drainage hydrograph starts at zero, rises linearly in the early rainfall similarity solution, and approaches the total recharge $RL$ if rainfall lasts long enough for a finite-length steady state. Indeed, steady mass conservation gives $q_x=R$ and $q(L)=0$, hence $Q_0=RL$. At $t^{\ast }$, the outlet flux stays continuous for a regular inherited flux profile, then recedes as water drains; the eventual decay is proportional to $(t-t^{\ast }+\text{constant}{)}^{-2}$. An arbitrary transition requires the full time-dependent partial differential equation, so matching an early rainfall formula directly to a separated drought formula is only a schematic approximation.

The curve illustrates these regimes and a possible $t^{\ast }$. Its numerical shape and the relative duration of the regimes are schematic; the early rainfall and late drought formulas apply in their respective asymptotic ranges.