Transient Head Development due to Flood Induced Seepage under Levees

The purpose of this study was to predict the uplift force during floods on confining layers that overlay extensive horizontal confined aquifers that intersect a large river in response to the water level changes that occur with time in a flooding river. Transient flow of water through the confined aquifer was described by a diffusion type of equation with a boundary condition at the river in which the river head varied with time. The transient head distribution developed from the unsteady flow model applied to the aquifer was compared with the hydraulic head distributions obtained from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers steady-state flow model and a finite-element seepage model. This study concluded that the transient flow model has the potential to analyze time lag in head development, and to predict the seepage condition and heaving potential at various times and distances landside of a levee during a flood cycle