Transient Canal Seepage to Sloping Aquifer

Abstract

The problem of seepage from an unlined earthen canal is considered. The phreatic surface generated on the two sides of the canal is characterized by the nonlinear Boussinesq equation incorporating the slope element. A closed‐form analytical solution to the linearized Boussinesq equation was derived. A finite‐difference solution to the nonlinear Boussinesq equation was also obtained using the unconditionally stable Du Fort‐Frankel explicit method for the seepage problem in the semiinfinite flow problem. The numerical solution in general predicted a higher phreatic surface than the analytical solution.