Author(s): Marco Berardi; Francesco Di Lena; Rita Masciale; Ivan Portoghese

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Keywords: Flow equations; Infiltration trenches; Hydraulic conductivity; Complex system

Abstract: This study takes a cue from the research and monitoring activities held in the wastewater treatment plant in Castellana Grotte (Southern Italy), where an infiltration trenches system is used as final receptor of tertiary effluents from wastewater treatment plants. Water levels, as well as water inflow rate, were monitored in trenches, and variation in time of hydraulic heads was modeled simply using the Darcy law. More in detail, we start from considering the very basic mass balance law for each trench, and we also take into account water exchanges between adjacent trenches. The water flowing through the permeable septa that separate adjacent trenches, as well as the water infiltrating towards external walls of the trenches cluster was modelled by an ODEs system. Also anisotropy factors of the hosting rocks and differences in hydraulic heads among the trenches were considered for the modeling. To this purpose different data were used: a) coarse, daily data, used for estimating the behavior of cluster towards bottom and external lateral walls and b) high frequency data for estimating the mutual performance of trenches when pouring one into the other. Moreover, we also develop an algorithm for linking the water levels to inflow and therefore assessing the instantaneous inflow rate in each trench. As a result of such modeling, saturated hydraulic conductivities (both in horizontal and vertical direction) were estimated. Such a work is aimed to optimizing the management of the final receptor, and eventually to implementing managed aquifer recharge strategies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC252171192022490

Year: 2022