Use of analog models to simulate flow recession of karstic springs

Abstract

Analog models of reservoirs were developed from the analysis of flow recession for three karst springs in Lebanon. The first source is characterized by a linear relationship between flow and time; while the other two obey a power law. For the first source, the analog model is a reservoir with vertical walls, whereas the reservoirs for the other two consist of curved walls whose geometric equation is a power law with non-integer dimension. It is shown that for these two types of reservoirs, there is no linear relationship between the flow and the stored water volume at the same time, and that these analog models enable estimation of the stored water volume.