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Groundwater Technology Handbook: A Field Guide to Extraction and Usage of Groundwater
Groundwater Technology Handbook: A Field Guide to Extraction and Usage of Groundwater
Groundwater Technology Handbook: A Field Guide to Extraction and Usage of Groundwater
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Groundwater Technology Handbook: A Field Guide to Extraction and Usage of Groundwater

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The book presents a comprehensive, yet concise analysis of groundwater occurrence, its development, technology involved in exploration, extraction, and its economical usage.The book makes use of minimum technical jargon, while explaining the basics of drilling, types of wells, their maintenance, development and testing, and selection of pumps. It discusses the causes for wells failing, methods of diagnosis and the pre-emptive and remedial measures, water transmission, composition, and purification. Unlike other natural resources, groundwater is replenished by rainfall. Nevertheless those who depend on groundwater either for industrial or agricultural sustenance should be responsive to certain factors that are significant to the long-term well-being of the water source. Important are: Whether the wells are being over-pumped, or under-pumped; the quantity and cost of water being drawn, whether there is sufficient water underground with optimum replenishment, and systems installed are compatible to the particular hydrological situation and similar such factors. The book attempts, in simplistic language, to link the gap between theory and practice; between the principles of groundwater as a natural science and its application technology. There are a number of pre-calculated tables that serve as a handy reference for Consultants, Drillers and Engineers who deal with groundwater on a day-to-day basis.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 14, 2013
ISBN9781482812633
Groundwater Technology Handbook: A Field Guide to Extraction and Usage of Groundwater

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    Groundwater Technology Handbook - A.R. Mahendra

    Copyright © 2013 by A.R. Mahendra.

    ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4828-1264-0

                    Softcover        978-1-4828-1265-7

                    Ebook            978-1-4828-1263-3

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author or the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    To order additional copies of this book, contact

    Partridge India

    000 800 10062 62

    www.partridgepublishing.com/india

    orders.india@partridgepublishing.com

    CONTENTS

    Acknowledgements

    Preface

    Review

    Introduction

    Chapter I Occurrence Of Groundwater

    Chapter II Exploration For Groundwater

    Chapter III Aquifer Characteristics And Their Significance

    Chapter IV Water Well Drilling

    Chapter V Dug Wells, Bore Wells, Radial Wells

    Chapter VI Tube Wells

    Chapter VII Well Development, Stimulation, And Maintenance

    Chapter VIII Measuring Flow & Yield

    Chapter IX Testing Wells For Yield & Drawdown

    Chapter X Pumping Systems

    Chapter XI System Valves

    Chapter XII Pump Selection

    Chapter XIII Installation Of Pumps And Ancillaries

    Chapter XIV Piping Systems

    Chapter XV Composition And Purification Of Water

    Appendix 1 Trouble Shooting A Tube Or Borewell

    Appendix 2 Miscellaneous Readings In Groundwater

    Bibliography And Selected References For Further Reading

    TABLE INDEX

    Table 1: Conversion values for Volume

    Table 2: Conversion values for Flow

    Table 3: Length

    Table 4: Area

    Table 5: Hydraulic Conductivity And Yield Potential Of Major Formations. (After Karanth K.r.)

    Table 6: Estimation Of Porosity And Permeability From Sand Analysis

    Table 7: Well Steining Thickness (After Raghunath H.m.)

    Table 8: Volume Increase In Yield With Enlarged Well Diameters (After Johnson)

    Table 9: Sieve Analysis Of An Aquifer Sample

    Table 9a: Plot Data For Sand Analysis Curve (Fig.6)

    Table 10: Permeability & Critical Entrance Velocities (After Johnson)

    Table 11: 70% Size Multiplication Factors For Gravel Size Selection

    Table 12: Volume Of Water Overflowing Triangular Notch Weirs

    Table 13: Volume Of Water Overflowing Rectilinear Weirs

    Table 14: Measuring Flow With Manometer And Orifice Plates

    Table 15: Volume Of Water Overflowing From Self-Flowing Wells And Vertical Pipes

    Table 16: Volume Of Flow In Horizontal And Inclined Pipes (Courtesy: U.s.geological Survey)

    Table 17: Correction Factors For Partially Flowing Pipes

    Table 18: Pump Diameter And Capacity Range

    Table 19: Correlation Between Hp/Kw, Yield, And Head For Jet Pumps

    Table 20: Pipe Specifications For Wells Deploying Jet Pumps

    Table 21: Capacities Of Regular Hand Pumps

    Table 22: Relationship Between Horse Power, Stages, Output, And Head In Submersible Pumps

    Table 23: Performance Chart Of A Submersible Pump For A 100 Mm Well (Courtesy Cri Pumps)

    Table 24: Performance Chart Of A Submersible Pump For A 150 Mm Well

    Table 25: Performance Chart Of A Submersible Pump For A 200 Mm Well

    Table 26: Performance Chart Of A Submersible Pump For 250 Mm

    Table 27: Irrigation Water Requirement For Major Crops

    Table 28: Bhp Requirement Of Diesel Prime Movers

    Table 29: Selection Chart For Power Driven Pumps For Agricultural Application

    Table 30: Recommended Diameters Of Suction And Delivery Pipelines

    Table 31: Values Of Hazen-Williams Constant ‘C’

    Table 32: Frictional Head Loss For Every 100 M Length Of Straight Plastic Pipes

    Table 33: Frictional Head Loss For Every 10 Meters Length Of Straight Pipe

    Table 34: System Auxiliaries And Their Resistance To Water Flow In Terms Of Equivalent Length Of Straight Pipe Based On Is-Ii-1965

    Table 35: Maximum Volume Of Water That Can Be Pumped Through 30 M Of Metallic Pipe Of Various Diameters Under Differing Pressures

    Table 36: Computing Total Dynamic Head

    Table 37: Pipeline Selection (Abstract)

    Table 38: Water Quality Classification (Ppm = Parts Per Million)

    Table 39: Maximum Tolerable Radical Concentrations In Ppm

    Table 40: Classification Of Irrigation Waters In Ppm

    Table 41: To Convert Epm To Ppm; Ppm To Epm And Ppm To Ppm Caco3 (Abstracted From Who Standards)

    Table 42: Recommended Quantities Of Chlorinated Lime For Disinfecting Wells/Tanks Of Various Capacities (Johnson)

    INDEX TO FIGURES

    Fig 1: Graphical Representation Of Hydrologic Cycle

    Fig 2: Diagrammatic Illustration Of Resistivity Survey For Groundwater Exploration

    Fig 3: Concept Of Hydraulic Gradient

    Fig 4: Difference Between Transmissibility And Permeability Coefficients

    Fig 5: Collector And Radial Wells ( Mrinalini Et Al)

    Fig 6: Grain Size Analysis Curve

    Fig 7: Typical Well Screens

    Fig 8: Measuring Volume Of Water Overflowing Triangular Notch Weir

    Fig 9: Measuring Volume Of Water Flowing Through Rectilinear Weir

    Fig 10: Measuring Volume Of Flow With Manometer And Orifice Plate

    Fig 11: Estimating Volume Of Flow In Self-Flowing Wells And Vertical Casings

    Fig 12: Estimating Volume Of Flow From Horizontal And Inclined Pipes

    Fig 13: Ratio Of Diameter Of The Pipe And The Freeboard In Partially Flowing Pipes

    Fig 14: Set-Up For A Well Tes

    Fig 15: Representative Excerpt From A Drawdown Curve Plotted On Arithmetic Graph

    Fig 16: Cross-Sectional Image Of An Impeller

    Fig 17: Sectional Views Of The Volute

    Fig 18: One Of The Pumps Under Erection At Devadula Lift Irrigation Project In Andhra Pradesh

    Fig 19: Schematic Illustration Of Functioning Of High-Power Pumps In Lift Irrigation Projects

    Fig 20: Schematic Section Of A Turbine Pump Placement

    Fig 21: Cutout View Of A Multi-Stage Deep Well Submersible Pump

    Fig 22: Cross-Section Showing The Functional Aspects Of A Jet Pump

    Fig 23: India Mark II Hand Pump

    Fig 24: Cross-Sectional View Of A Hand Pump

    Fig 25: A Gate Valve

    Fig 26: A Foot Valve

    Fig 27: Frictionless Foot And Reflux Valves

    Fig 28: Correct Positions For Check And Gate Valves In A Conduit System

    Fig 29: Deployment Of ‘Flats’ Near The Pump Avoids Turbulence.

    Fig 30: Correct And Incorrect Ways Of Installing Suction And Delivery Assemblies

    Fig 31: Correct And Incorrect Ways Of Installing Suction Piping.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    I am highly indebted to V.A.B.Shastri, Director, Central Ground Water Board, Government of India, for his constant guidance in scripting and reviewing the Book.

    I wish to acknowledge with sincere thanks the help rendered by Praveen Kumar, Mala Raman, and Paul Danam for their unstinted support and encouragement in writing the Book, and in formatting the text and tables. My thanks are also due to T.Chenna Keshavulu for verifying the complex tables.

    PREFACE

    P rogressive systems of exploration and extraction of groundwater have transformed desolate, inhospitable land to life sustaining tracts, providing a new meaning of life to humans and animals alike. In large parts of the Earth, groundwater is often the major source, and frequently a solitary source of water, which sustains life in isolated locales. Groundwater has been largely responsible for converting otherwise dry, harsh terrain to cultivable, hospitable land; has facilitated setting up of numerous industries in far-flung, inaccessible tracts. It has also made possible spreading the residential colonies outward and away from the City centers.

    Groundwater is becoming an increasingly crucial component in estimation of the world’s freshwater reserves. Relative to the land surface, groundwater has a seemingly ubiquitous presence, though it occurs at extensively unstable depths, and in indefinite quantities. Exploration and extraction of groundwater is a multi-disciplinary subject involving technology from various engineering and physical sciences. Groundwater has certain attributes, which makes it superior to surface water; significant of which are: groundwater is an economic resource; occurs in far flung areas where there are no surface water resources, is less vulnerable to pollution, is usually of high bacteriological purity, and being free of pathogenic organisms has a natural health advantage over untreated surface water.

    Unlike other natural resources, groundwater is replenished by rainfall, or recharged from surface water sources. However, those who depend on groundwater pumped from a well field, either for industrial or agricultural sustenance should be responsive to certain factors that are significant to the long-term well-being of the water source. Important are:

    1)   Whether the wells are being over-pumped, or under-pumped;

    2)   The quantity of water being drawn, and its outlay;

    3)   Whether there is sufficient water underground, with optimum annual replenishment, to sustain the underground reservoir;

    4)   Whether the pumping and transmission systems installed are economical for that particular hydrological situation, and other such similar parameters, which all collate with each other.

    The Book attempts, in simplistic language, to link the gap between theory and practice; between the principles of groundwater as a natural science and its application technology. Data has been compiled from literature scattered over numerous publications, and integrated with the extensive field experience of the author and his colleagues, incorporating the core material, essential for groundwater development. Emphasis is on the applied attributes of the subject.

    The work is a handy reference for Hydrogeologists, Civil Engineers, Drilling Engineers, and Agriculturists who need to access various derivatives while engaged in groundwater exploration, extraction, and its use. The book attempts to elucidate the significance of procedures to coordinate the various aspects of abstracting groundwater. Each chapter is a subject by itself, on which there are numerous books.

    Some of the important publications, from which the data has been compiled for the handbook are listed at the end, for further reading. The subject is so vast that it is not possible to cover all the aspects of groundwater technology; only information most frequently needed in groundwater use is included. The author and Publishers would gratefully welcome suggestions for inclusion of additional material and/or modifications in the text. The Handbook highlights and emphasizes the essential points that are fundamental to using groundwater either for domestic, industrial, or agricultural use.

    armahendra@yahoo.co.in

    REVIEW

    T his Book is the outcome of field and management experiences in groundwater exploration and application technology gathered by the Author over a period of 40 years. The author is a Geoscientist of long standing reputation, having served in the capacities of a Senior Geologist, and Head of a Division in the Geological Survey of India, and subsequently as a leading Consultant in groundwater exploration and technology. While in the groundwater division of the Geological Survey of India, he was seconded to the Technical Cooperation Mission, under the aegis of the United States Geological Survey. During the course of this assignment, he worked as a team member, in almost all the States of India, participating in a coast-to-coast groundwater exploration mission, involving advanced groundwater studies allied to deep drilling, groundwater management, and scientific usage. Later, he was Chief of a Groundwater Consultancy Firm that was awarded contracts for exploration, drilling, and development of groundwater by Irrigation and Agro Industries Development Corporations of various State governments. He was also Chief Geologist for Gulf Mining & Exploration Co., Tanzania.

    The fifteen chapters in the book concisely deal with groundwater occurrence, its accretion, determination of flow parameters, flow measurements, well construction, importance of proper pump selection, and ensuring water quality for various applications. A host of easily readable tables and illustrations make the data understandable to the lay reader and the accompanying explanations meaningful to those who deal with groundwater in their day-to-day activities.

    Sd/-V.A.B.Shastri

    DIRECTOR (Retd.)

    Central Groundwater Board

    Government of India

    INTRODUCTION

    G eohydrology, as a branch of the Earth Sciences has been making rapid advances, stimulated in large measure by the increasing population, irrigation requirement to augment food production, rapid industrialization, and social survival. Groundwater is becoming an increasingly crucial component of the world’s freshwater sources, that well investigated groundwater regions are becoming included as part of freshwater reserves. It is nature’s paradox that the Earth’s most abundant substance, water, is also the most precious; the search for which has been continuous and never ending since the dawn of civilization. It is a paradox that water occurs on Earth in abundant quantities, but the water that is available to man is an insignificant part of the total. World’s seas and oceans hold about 97% of all the water on the planet. The glaciers and the polar ice caps hold about 2.25% of the remaining water in a permanently frozen, locked up state. The residual fresh water is 0.75%. Out of this fraction, only 0.11% is accessible from rivers and freshwater lakes. The remaining 0.64% forming the major portion of freshwater on earth occurs underground as groundwater.

    Caspian Sea holds 75% of all the salt water in inland seas. Lakes Baikal, Tanganyika, Nyssa, Victoria and Superior hold about 60% of all the fresh water in inland lakes. The recent phenomenon of global warming, and resulting melting of the ice caps is a transient phase, which however has reduced the quantum of fresh water held by the ice shelves.

    By various projections and abstractions of the measurable entities, it has been estimated that total volume of water present on the planet is 1380 million km³, out of which only 10 million km³ is fresh water. Against this quantum, at any point of time 1,25,000km³ is accessible from rivers and lakes, while 8,45,000km³ occurs under the ground as groundwater. Freshwater is replenished from annual rainfall which averages 1,10,000 km³ over the continents. However, distribution of rainfall varies widely, causing life-threatening floods at some places, while causing critical drought and famine situations at other places.

    The UN Agencies have been warning that by 2025, at least 1800 million people would be living in regions, including India, facing extreme water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population would be living under severe water stress. Currently, one in every six people worldwide does not have access to safe water. Surveys have shown that about 1.5 billion people live in regions where water is being over drawn depleting reservoirs and groundwater. The current hydrological cycle has to sustain an additional 2.7 billion population by 2050.

    Groundwater has been accumulating over several million years, with rainfall each year adding only miniscule quantities to its static reserves. Lack of rainfall for a year or two does not intrinsically alter the total volume of groundwater in storage, though it will affect the overlying dynamic reserves. Since groundwater occurs, hidden from view, its reliability as a dependable source is often viewed with skepticism. The continuously evolving technology in groundwater abstraction is progressively demonstrating this concept as a myth.

    Locating a source point, and drilling a well, is an initial and preliminary part of developing a groundwater resource. More important is the maintenance of the water source point, testing it for its potential and installation of an appropriate pumping system, as well as conveying the water economically, with minimum loss of water and power to the point of usage.

    CONVERSION FACTORS:

    CONVERSION TABLES

    Table 1: Volume

    Table 2: Flow

    Table 3: Length

    Table 4: Area

    ABBREVIATIONS

    CHAPTER I

    OCCURRENCE OF GROUNDWATER

    G roundwater has a vast distribution all over the globe, but very few underground reservoirs have been well investigated, and data is scanty even for those reservoirs that have been studied.

    Hydrologic cycle:

    Hydrology is the study of the occurrence, movement, distribution, and circulation of water through the hydrologic cycle. Hydrologic cycle is unending; it has no beginning, and no end. Water from the oceans evaporates into the atmosphere, precipitates into atmospheric moisture, and condenses into clouds, which under certain temperature and pressure conditions result in rainfall (Fig 1). A part of this rainfall runs off the ground resulting in streams and rivers, while a part infiltrates into the ground, and drains to large underground reservoirs. The elements that coalesced, and condensed into water during the formation of the primordial earth, 4500 million years ago, is the same water that is present on earth today, and will be the same that would be present a billion years from now. No original water is being either created nor is any that already exists being destroyed. Same water continues to circulate in one form or the other.

    Fig1.jpg

    Fig 1: Graphical representation of hydrologic cycle

    Groundwater occurrence, though seemingly pervasive, varies widely with depth and extent. Depth to groundwater incidence may range from 1 meter to as much as 1000 meters, dependent on the nature of the geological formations holding the water and proximity to recharge areas. Water under the ground does not occur either as streams or as underground channels.

    Sub-surface water or water underground has a universal ubiquitous presence, but not all water under the ground is groundwater. Air inside any excavated area, or a drill hole is at ambient atmospheric pressure (1 kg /cm²) and any water occurring in the interstices surrounding the well, or the drill hole should be under pressures exceeding atmospheric pressure to be able to flow into the open area. Hence, what differentiates groundwater from the sub-soil water is, groundwater occurs under pressures greater than that of the atmosphere, and that it flows freely into the excavated area. The subsurface zone of soil or rock that hold water under pressures less than the atmospheric pressure is the vadose zone, which extend below the land surface down to the

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