CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
Groundwater Development
Problems in Bangladesh
● Arsenic
● Dissolved Iron
● Salinity in coastal area
● Lowering of GWT
● Rocky layers in hilly area
Tubewell technology
● Classification according to depth of strainer:
○ Shallow tubewell (STW)
○ Deep Tubewells (DTW) – 75m ~ 300m
● Classification according to handpump
○ Suction pumps
■ No. 6 hand pump – up to 7.5 m (piston stroke 240 mm)
■ Rower pump – up to 8.5 m ; ergonomically comfortable.
■ Disco pump – up to 10 m (modification of no. 6 pump, casing extended up to 3m)
○ Deep-set intermediate technology
■ Tara hand pump – lifting capacity 15 m.
■ Tara-II hand pump – lifting capacity 30 m; No.6 pump-head
■ Moon hand pump – lifting capacity 25 m; No. 6 pump-head
■ Bangla hand pump – lifting capacity 15 m.
■ Mark-II hand pump – lifting capacity 30 m; longer handle
■ Mark-III hand pump – same as Mark-II with fiberglass rods.
○ Submersible pumps
● According to pressure
○ Lift pump (no. 6)
○ Force pump (Tara)
Parts of municipal tubewell: Parts of a rural handpump tubewell:
● Sump pipe ● Screens/strainer
● Strainer ○ Brass screen
● Blind Pipe ○ PVC screen
● Housing Pipe ○ Stainless steel screen
● Sand trap
● Blind pipe
● Handpump
Methods of Tubewell sinking
Municipal well: Rural handpump tubewell:
1. Standard method 1. Sludger method
2. California stovepipe method 2. Water jetting method
3. Jetting method
4. Core-drill method, and
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 1
CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
5. Hydraulic rotary method
Installation
● Tubewell assembly is to be lowered and fixed in position as soon as possible.
● The sand trap, strainers, blind pipes, housing pipe, etc. are assembled near the tubewell and
marked serially.
● The components of the tubewell are then lowered one by one as required starting from the
bottom end.
● Each component of the tubewell is to be properly joined by glue/clamp/screw/welding
● After lowering it is kept suspended from the top of the bore hole and clean sand or properly
designed cleaned shrouding gravel is dropped in the bore hole.
● The coarse sand or shrouding material is filled to at least 10 to 15 m above the top of the
upper strainer.
● The remaining space of the bore hole may be filled with clayey materials to prevent
percolation of contaminated water from the surface.
● It is important that the entire tubewell is installed straight and vertically. To ensure this,
guides can be placed at certain distances.
Development
● 1.5 times capacity pumping or for handpump tubewells continious pumping to get maximum
discharge.
● Washout the fines in the aquifer and clay or other materials introduced during boring.
● Aquifer surrounding strainer gets good permeability and a porous envelop.
● A well developed tubewell is not clogged by fine particle migration during normal
operation.
Well Sanitation:
Why?
● To prevent contamination of groundwater through the well.
How?
● A suitable seal should be provided at the top of casing
● The annular space between the casing and wall of the hole may be grouted.
● Surface water should not be permitted to collect around the top of the wall
● Abandoned wells should be sealed with clay, concrete or other filler to avoid contamination
of the aquifer.
● Chlorination of well to eliminate any contaminants introduced during construction (1. Cl -
50 mg/L → 2 hrs. 2. Pump out)
Maintenance of wells:
● Encrustation by salts –
○ Surging with plunger
○ HCl for several hours
● Bacterial clogging – Chlorinated water
● For damaged screen – no maintenance can be done
● Leakage - grouting
Well log:
The well log is a record of the underground materials penetrated as various depths and of the
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 2
CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
diameter and other characteristics of the well including size, depth, capacity, etc. It is very essential
for safe operation and maintenance of the well.
Well design
The well screen
The greatest influence on the efficient performance of a well is the design and construction of the
well screen. The well screen serves as the intake section of the well allowing and is considered
adequate only when it allows sand-free water to flow into the well with a minimum loss of head. A
properly designed well screen combines the highest percentage of open area with adequate strength
to resist the forces covered in the previous section concerning well casing.
Features of a properly designed well screen include:
1. Slotted openings, preferably continuous and uninterrupted around the circumference of the
screen
2. Close spacing of slot openings for maximum open area
3. V-shaped slots that widen inward
4. Single metal construction to avoid galvanic corrosion from two different metals coming in
contact with one another.
5. Maximum open area consistent with strength requirements
6. Ample strength to resist forces to which the screen is subjected.
In consolidated formations, the intake portion is usually an open borehole drilled into the aquifer to
a depth intersecting the water bearing portions of the aquifer.
In unconsolidated formations, however, screens are installed to prevent aquifer material from being
pumped along with the water.
V-Shaped Slots
Openings shaped like a "v" that open toward the inside of the well tend to allow the particles that
are just barely smaller than the width of the slot pass. In other shapes of openings, these particles
would get caught in the screen and clog it.
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 3
CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
Steps in well design
1 Determine demand, Q (Q = pq, where p is future population, q is the per capita demand)
2 Get the bore log, water table data and grain size analysis for all the aquifers.
3 Determine the uniformity coefficient, u = d60 / d10 ≥ 3.0
Determine d50 ≥ 0.25 mm
If any of these two criteria is not met, have to design a shrouded (gravel pack) well.
4 Select slot size (slot size ≤ d50). Select a strainer diameter and calculate the required length
of the screen. If the length is larger than the allowable length (= aquifer thickness – about 10
ft) than select a larger strainer diameter and calculate the length.
Shrouded or Gravel Pack well
Features:
• Stabilizes the aquifer.
• Minimizes sand pumping.
• Permits use of a large screen slot with a maximum open area.
• Provides an annular zone of high permeability around the strainer which increases the
effective radius and yield of the well.
Design criteria:
• Maximum size of gravel pack material should not exceed 1.0 cm.
• Gravel pack layer should be 8 ~ 15 cm thick.
• Uniformity coefficient of gravel pack media u = d60 / d10 ≤ 2.5
• Slot size ≤ d10 of the gravel pack media
• Grain size analysis curve for gravel pack media should fall between two parallel lines of the
grain size analysis curve of the finest aquifer material, through two points which
corresponds 6xd30 and 4xd30.
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 4
CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
Nominal Screen Intake areas in sq. inch per linear foot of screen
size (D)
Slot No. 10 Slot No. 20 Slot No. 40 Slot No. 60
inch 0.01" = 0.25 mm 0.02" = 0.5 mm 0.04" = 1 mm 0.06" = 1.5 mm
1¼ - TS 10 16 26 32
1½ - PS 13 22 36 45
2 - PS 14 25 41 50
3 - TS 15 26 42 52
2½ - PS 17 30 48 59
3 - PS 20 34 54 68
4 - TS 21 35 56 71
4 - PS 23 44 68 86
Example (M.A. Aziz): Design the screen of a well from the following data
Thickness of the aquifer = 60 ft
Slot size of the screen = 20
Discharge = 334 gpm
Entrance Velocity = 0.1 fps
Well diameter = 2 inch
Solution:
Q = AV = 334 gpm = 0.74 cfs [1 ft3 = 7.48 gallon]
or, A = 0.74/0.1 = 7.4 sft = 1066 sq. inch.
From Table, open area for 2" – PS screen size and slot no. 20, the open area per foot length of
2 inch dia well is 25 sq. inch.
Length of screen = 1066/25 = 42.64 ft, say 43 ft.
Example (Ahmed and Rahman): Design a strainer for a 38 mm diameter tubewell to be operated
by a No.6 handpump at the rate of 40 lpm. Slot No. 10 strainer having a 40% open area is to be
used. The entrance velocity should be around 0.01 m/sec.
Solution:
Q = π D L (0.01P) Ve Here, Q = 40 lpm = 0.04 m3/min = 6.67×10-4 m3/sec
D = 38 mm = 0.038 m
=> 6.67×10-4 = π × 0.038 × L × 0.4 × 0.01 P = 40%
Ve = 0.01 m/sec
=> L = 1.396 m ≈ 1.4 m L=?
Strainer of 1.5 m may be provided.
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 5
CE 341: Environmental Engineering I Groundwater Development
Groundwater recharge:
● To put water into ground/ aquifer artificially.
Concept of Artificial Recharge
● To dispose waste water
● to replenish over pumped groundwater aquifers
● to form a fresh water barrier against intrusion of salt water into heavily pumped
groundwater reservoirs along the coast.
● To complement or replace surface storage by ground storage in increasing the safe yield of
surface supplies.
● Reduce or stop significand land subsidence
● Provide a localized subsurface distribution system for established wells
● Conserve or extract energy in the form of hot or cold water
Recharge Methods
● Spreading
○ Basin
○ Stream channel
○ Ditch and furrow
○ Flooding
○ Irrigation
● Pit method
● Incidental Recharge: Incidental, or unplaned, recharge occurs where water enters the ground
as a result of a human activity whose primary objective is unrelated to artificial recharge of
groundwater. Included in this category is water from irrigation, cesspools, septic tanks,
water mains, sewers, landfills, waste-disposal facilities, canals, and reservoirs.
● Recharge well method
● Induced infiltration: accomplished by withdrawing groundwater at a location adjacent to a
river or lake so that lowering of groundwater level will induce water to enter the ground
from the surface source.
By: Dr. Miah M. Hussainuzzaman, Associate Professor, Daffodil International University Page: 6
