263 Exploring Groundwater Recharge and Management: Managed Aquifer Recharge and Other Innovative Tools for Water Supply Development and Operations (Posters)

Growing demand for water has highlighted the need to understand aquifer recharge to improve groundwater management and production methods. This session explores groundwater recharge and innovative water supplies and infrastructure. Topics include evapotranspiration, vadose zone processes, brackish groundwater desalination, managed aquifer recharge, stormwater management, and others.

Wednesday, 22 October 2025
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, Hall 1

Effects of Time-Varying Recharge on Physical Clogging for Managed Aquifer Recharge

Paper number: 263-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has been established as an effective solution to replenish aquifers with declining water levels. Aquifer clogging due to the deposition and accumulation of solid particles, transported along with the recharge water is one of the key challenges during MAR implementation, as it limits the amount of recharge over time. Natural precipitation patterns are often highly variable through time. The momentum of episodic flow caused by runoff events can lift or detach particles from solid grains, then suspend and redistribute them in the pore spaces. In this study, we investigated the impact of transient recharge patterns on the physical clogging during infiltration (gravitational drainage) of natural precipitation using COMSOL® Multiphysics, which couples porous medium flow with the particle transport-deposition model. Compared with the constant recharge, the time-varying recharge flux results in a more dynamic particle transport process, where fluctuations in deposited particle concentration occur more frequently due to variations in attachment and detachment forces of particles. This leads to a more transient clogging behavior and correspondingly reduces the porosity and hydraulic conductivity of the porous medium. The study also evaluates the effects of recharge frequency and amplitude variations (simplified as sinusoidal, linear, pulse, step functions) on clogging. These findings will help us understand the physical clogging mechanism under the influence of transient recharge patterns and provide guidance to mitigate physical clogging. The findings will also be used to evaluate the permeability evolution of hyporheic zones that are exposed to highly variable transient river stage fluctuations.                                                                                       

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-412059

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