Laboratory installation for simulating groundwater flowin saturated porous media in steady-state and transient conditions

A laboratory installation designed for simulating groundwater flow in homogeneous and isotropic unconfined aquifersbetween two rivers or parallel channels is described in this paper. The laboratory installation allows to visualize and tostudy the behaviour of the phreatic surface, to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity, and to compareexperimental data with analytical and numerical solutions of partial differential equation describing the groundwaterflowin steady-state and transient conditions. The installation is simpleto useand has been proven to be robust and usefulinimproving scientific knowledge on modelling principles of groundwater flow in saturated porous media.