Three monitoring wells are used to determine the hydraulic gradient of an aquifer, and each well is located at the vertex of an equilateral triangle. The distance between any pair of wells is 300 m. The head at each well, referenced to some common datum, is as follows: well 1, 100 m; well 2, 100.3 m; well 3, 100.3 m. The aquifer has a hydraulic conductivity of 1,000 m/d, and a porosity of 0.35.
a. Sketch the well field and find the magnitude and direction of the hydraulic gradient.
b. What is the Darcy velocity?
c. What is the average linear velocity of the groundwater?
d. If the front edge of a plume is perfectly straight, how long would it take to travel to well 1 after first arriving (simultaneously) at wells 2 and 3