Flownet

The construction of a Flownet is a graphical method used to solve two-dimensional steady-state groundwater flow problems through aquifers. The method is often used in civil engineering, hydrogeology or soil mechanics as a first check for problems of flow under hydraulic structures like dams or sheet pile walls.

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The method consists of filling the flow area with stream and equipotential lines, which are everywhere perpendicular to each other (making a grid of curvilinear squares). Typically there are two surfaces (boundaries) which are at constant values of potential or hydraulic head (upstream and downstream ends), and the other surfaces are no-flow boundaries (i.e., impermeable; for example the bottom of the dam and the top of an impermeable bedrock layer), which define the sides of the outermost streamtubes (see figure 1 for a stereotypical flownet example).

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Groundwater: Groundwater is water flowing within aquifers below the water table. Within aquifers, the water flows through the pore spaces in unconsolidated sediments and the fractures of rocks. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at sprin...

Aquifer: An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, or permeable mixtures of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, silt, or clay) (see also groundwater). Some productive aquifers are in fractured rock (carbonate rock, basalt, or sandstone). The study of water flow in aquifers and t...