Volume 3, Number 1
In This Issue
Dr. Michael L. Voorhees
Cave Database
The Force is With You
HKI at Battelle Conference
Bill Wilson
Accounts Payable
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Dr. Michael L. Voorhees
Hazlett-Kincaid, Inc. is proud to officially welcome Dr. Michael L. Voorhees on board as a new member of our modeling staff. Dr. Voorhees is an internationally-recognized expert in numerical modeling, optimization, and expert witness testimony. Dr. Voorhees for his B.S. graduated Cum Laude from Colorado State University and was a Jesse Hackett Engineering Fellow at the University of Illinois were he earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering specializing in groundwater and surface water hydrology and water resources engineering.
Thereafter, he has served as project director for numerous superfund cleanup modeling efforts, and, more recently, large groundwater resource management modeling efforts in Florida. We're excited to have Mike on board and are looking forward in the near future to introducing two new modeling techniques: one for Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) volume estimation and a second for groundwater resource modeling. In a merger, of sorts, the new techniques capitalize on combining the process modeling system already developed by HKI and other modeling systems developed by Dr. Voorhees.§
Cave Database
Hazlett-Kincaid, Inc. (HKI) is teaming up with Florida State University (FSU), the Florida Geological Survey (FGS), Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), and others in an effort to compile a database of all mapped caves in Florida, project the cave map data into real-world coordinates, and make it available online to the public in GIS formats. Most, if not all, of the caves in Florida are fully saturated with groundwater and provide the most important, but hard to find, pathways for groundwater flow in the upper Floridan aquifer. Cave divers, such as the members of GUE and the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP), have been mapping underwater caves in Florida for more than three decades.
The purpose of this project is to collect their data, reference it against topographic maps, evaluate the data quality, and compile the resulting map information into a centralized database from which it can be accessed by groundwater resource professionals and other interested parties in Florida.This project is expected to be an on-going effort for the next 2 to 3 years, with periodic updates as new caves are discovered and mapped.
Our initial effort, which will be completed in 2002, is focused specifically on compiling available data and entering the data into a GIS format. The existing cave maps will be evaluated and ranked in terms of accuracy and then correlated to USGS 7.5 minute topographic quadrangles. The maps will then be converted to .dxf and ESRI formats and made available on-line through the Florida Geological Survey. We expect that the database will assist groundwater resource managers working in karst areas of Florida that have, heretofore, had little access to cave map data. §
The Force is With You
To borrow a phrase from the movie Star Wars, the force is with you if you are a hydrogeologist. More specifically, the force is with your worksite and the fluids flowing through it. Though many hydrogeologists are never trained in this aspect of the science, there are many different forces acting on the groundwater, soil, rock, and contamination that make up your typical site. Many of these forces are what mathematicians would call potential forces or fields.
The most commonly understood potential field in groundwater flow is the fluid potential, or more commonly, the hydraulic head. By Darcy's law, groundwater flows from points of high head to points of low head; following the hydraulic gradient. Other, less often considered potential fields acting on groundwater flow and contaminant transport include: electrical fields, chemical gradients, osmotic forces, magnetic fields, thermal gradients, etc. All of which are considered irreversible processes.
Onsager's Theorem lays out all of this potential complexity (pun intended) in a simple fashion. What it basically says is that one can evaluate any flux, such as groundwater flux, by summing the effects of not only the groundwater flow potential times hydraulic conductivity, but also other potentials, multiplied by their respective phenomenological coefficients (see equation). In the case presented, the phenomenological coefficients, L2 and L3, would be thermal conduction and chemical diffusion terms (-lambda and -D, respectively). Together, these terms would then represent fluxes of heat and solute, as governed by Fourier's Law and Fick's Law.
In modeling terms, one ends up with a coupled system when any of these other terms are relevant. One real-world example of this would be the so-called thermohaline flow that occurs around the fringes of salt domes in the Gulf Coast region of the United States and elsewhere. The fringes of salt domes are prime drilling targets for petroleum and gas and therefore have received a lot of study. The coupled system operative there is one in which groundwater flow is driven in convection cells, where at different points in time and space, the concentration of salt in water (C) is a function of the heat (T) input to the system. So, the next time you have an encounter with a site where Darcy's Law is invoked, don't forget....there are many other forces at work. Consider these impacts as well.....and may the force(s) be with you. §
Battelle Conference
HKI will be presenting a poster session at the Third International Battelle Conference on the Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds, in Monterey, California, May 20th through the 23rd, 2002. Our poster will be available for viewing Tuesday evening, when Dr. Hazlett will be manning the exhibit from 5:30-7:30 pm. The poster will be about the East Side Access Project, in New York City, where HKI is involved as a sub-contract modeling specialist to the Tunnel Engineering Consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas / STV, Inc. Joint Venture (PB/STV). Please stop by, see our poster, and chat with Dr. Hazlett. §
Bill Wilson
HKI sadly notes the passing of William L. Wilson two months ago. Bill was a colleague in karst studies and friend of HKI. Bill founded Subsurface Evaluations, Inc. in 1987 to offer geological consulting services. Bill was a nationally-recognized expert in evaluation of sinkhole development hazards; interpretation of GPR in karst terrain, and contaminant transport through cave networks. He had over 20 years of geological experience and will be missed.§
New Accounts Payable Address
Please note that all correspondence regarding accounts payable or receivable should be now sent to:
Hazlett-Kincaid, Inc.
2012-A North Point Blvd.
Tallahassee, FL 32308 §
