Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

6617

Date

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Civil Engineering

Concentration

Water Resources Engineering

Committee Chair

Brian Waldron

Committee Member

Dan Larsen

Committee Member

Scott Schoefernacker

Abstract

Thinning or localized breaches in an aquitard warrant concern as this limits the protection it affords to water supply aquifers underneath. The objective of this study was to assess the potential spatial configurations of breaches within the aquitard overlying the Memphis aquifer for the Sheahan well field in Memphis, Tennessee. A three-dimensional groundwater model was utilized to investigate leakage pathways into the well field when simulating five potential breach configurations under three different hydraulic conductivity values. Through particle tracking analysis, estimates for the modern water percentage and apparent age of the modern water extracted by the production wells at the well field were obtained and compared to published age-dating data. Breach configurations resembling a paleochannel, that could originate through erosional scarring within the aquitard, were found to be more likely to match the extent and magnitude of the presence of modern water around the well field supported by previous studies.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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