A formal solution to a classical initial-boundary value problem in groundwater hydraulics (Q1108887)

One of the classical problems arizing in the study of Darcian groundwater flow in horizontal strata is that of finding ``drawdowns'' (changes in the piezometric surface due to the onset of pumping) which satisfy the equation \[ r^{-1}(\partial /\partial r)(r(\partial /\partial r)u_ i(r,z,t)+k_ i(\partial^ 2/\partial z^ 2)u_ i(r,z,t))=\nu_ i^{-1}(\partial /\partial t)u_ i(r,z,t) \] for \(r>0\), \(t>0\) and \(0<z<Z_ 1\) for \(i=1\) and \(Z_ 1<z<Z_ 2\) if \(i=2\), with the initial-boundary conditions \(u_ i(r,z,0)=0\), \((\partial u_ 1/\partial z)(r,0,t)=0\), \(u_ 2(r,Z_ 2,t)=0\), \(\lim_{r\to \infty}u_ i(r,z,t)=0\), \(u_ 1(r,Z_ 1,t)=u_ 2(r,Z_ 1,t)\), \(k_ 1(\partial u_ 1/\partial z)(r,Z_ 1,t)=k_ 2(\partial u_ 2/\partial z)(r,Z_ 1,t)\), \[ \lim_{r\to 0}r\frac{\partial u_ 1}{\partial r}(r,z,t)=\begin{cases} 0\quad if\quad z\not\in [d,\ell]\\ - \frac{Q}{2\pi k_ r(\ell -d)}\quad if\quad z\in [d,\ell].\end{cases} \] In order to solve the problem, the differential equation and all side conditions are Laplace transformed with respect to t. Then finite cosine transforms with respect to z are applied to the new expressions. After performing these transforms, the generic result is an inhomogeneous Bessel equation of order zero. The author gives an implicit representation of the transformed solution using modified Bessel functions and an integral operator with a Green kernel which maps the nonhomogeneous leakage fluxes into the solution. In order to obtain the original solution \((u_ 1,u_ 2)\) the author examines in detail some methods of approximation.