The extended Boussinesq Problem

Abstract

Summary and entire article are available on microfiche. Order from American Geophysical Union, 1909 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. Document W‐76‐001; $1.00. Payment must accompany order.The original Boussinesq problem of the decline of a groundwater mound between parallel drains is extended to include vertical leakage and recharge and cases of freshwater lenses in confined and unconfined saline aquifers. The solution of appropriate continuity equations with some imposed restrictions by variable separation results in three distinct flow depth configurations, which can be described analytically. Transient behavior in two of these cases is nonlinear but amenable to exact solution and can be delineated in a (2μ + β, σ + μ) plane, where β and σ are leakage and recharge parameters and μ is a separation constant. It is found that similarity solutions, one of which is the original Boussinesq solution, exist for both decreasing and increasing flow depths. Active and passive influences of boundary conditions are distinguished. Solutions are applied to the evaluation of saline water intrusion in some coastal zones of Long Island, New York.