A Study on the Distribution of Hydraulic Head Along the Lateral in a Pilot-Scale Riverbank Filtration

A pilot-scale sand-box experiment simulating a lateral of collector well used in riverbank filtration was performed, and hydraulic head distributions along the lateral were measured according to the various drawdowns at the well. The results of this experiment were compared to the predicted values obtained using a theory previously developed by Kim in order for its validation. This theory predicts the head loss in a large-scale lateral given the loss in a small-scale one, and to have actual values for comparison, the results from a lab-scale experiment previously performed by Kim were employed. Comparing the experimental values to the extrapolated value indeed confirmed the validity of the theory. A procedure to determine the hydraulic head distribution of a practical-scale lateral was also presented applying the theory to the experimental result of this study in an effort to show the process of lateral design for riverbank filtration.