Experimental investigation of effect of tide on coastal groundwater table

Abstract

In this article, a tide simulation system based on a two-way water pump technique is developed. Using this system and numerical simulations, the groundwater table fluctuation characteristics, relative over height of groundwater table, and influencing factors of over height are investigated. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the groundwater table fluctuation is of periodic, and of asymmetric. The amplitude of groundwater table fluctuations decreases with the increase of the onshore distances. There are phase lags of groundwater table fluctuations for different monitoring points. The tide can bring about remarkable over height of coastal groundwater table. The dominating factors bring about over height include the tide amplitude, aquifer thickness and tide frequency. Under experimental conditions, the relative tide amplitude over height may exceeded 50% of the maximal tide amplitude, and reach about 10% of aquifer thickness.