No abstract

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) using aquifer injection wells is generally developed with the validity of Darcy's law and assumption of a constant hydraulic conductivity, hence ignoring the non-Darcian nature of groundwater flow and the spatiotemporal permeability reduction owing to well and aquifer clogging. In this study, an Izbash's law-based analytical model is proposed for constant-rate recharge (CRR) and constant-head recharge (CHR) with special consideration of well and aquifer clogging using a time-dependent hydraulic conductivity (K) function. By means of linearization approximations, variable substitutions and Hankel and Weber transforms, approximate analytical solutions for the model are derived. The early-time and late-time solutions and the steady-state solutions are also derived using the developed approximate solutions. A comparison with numerical solutions indicates that the approximate solutions are highly accurate except during the short period of initial recharge stage. Then, a semi-log graphic approach based on the developed solutions is tendered for estimating parameters associated with the clogging effect and non-Darcian aquifer property. The proposed model offers a straightforward way for the quantitative assessment of the non-Darcian flow dynamics in confined aquifers experiencing clogging and can be adopted for the estimation and prediction of clogging-related permeability reduction in MAR using aquifer injection wells.