Henry Darcy's Law of Fluid Flow Through Porous Media

Bobeck, Patricia

Henry Darcy's Law of Fluid Flow Through Porous Media

Presented on Monday, April 29, 2013

Patricia Bobeck, PG, MA, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Darcy’s Law, first published in 1856, is widely accepted as the foundation of quantitative hydrogeology. Experiments on water flow through sand led Darcy to formulate the empirical law he published as an appendix to The Public Fountains of the City of Dijon, his account of the planning and construction of Dijon’s water system in 1840. Darcy wrote the book as a guide for engineers tasked with building water supply systems in 19^th century Europe. Darcy’s 650-page book provides valuable information on the historical context of his accomplishments and on Darcy the man.

Darcy describes how, as a young engineer of the Corps of Bridges and Roads assigned to his native city, he gauged nearby springs and selected an abundant spring to divert to Dijon via a 12-km underground aqueduct. He collected information from British and French engineers to calculate the amount of water Dijon needed. He built two reservoirs, 13 kilometers of pipes, and 115 street fountains in Dijon. These public fountains supplied free water for all inhabitants, for street flushing, and for fire suppression. As a result of Darcy’s work, Dijon became a water-wealthy city, second only to Rome in terms of water quality and quantity.

By 1855 when Darcy conducted the experiment on fluid flow through porous media, he had retired on disability. Seeking to determine the laws governing water filtration to help cities reduce the surface area of their filters, Darcy first gathered information from cities that used surface water as their water supply. Because the data was inconclusive, Darcy devised a column experiment, conducted it in the courtyard of a Dijon hospital, and formulated the law known today as Darcy’s Law.

Patricia Bobeck translated Darcy’s Public Fountains of the City of Dijon into English and has photographed much of what remains of Darcy’s water supply system.

MP3 Presentation Slides

Patricia Bobeck, PG, MA

Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Patricia Bobeck holds master’s degrees from the University of Texas (geology) and the University of Michigan (linguistics) and a bachelor’s degree in French. For her geology thesis she mapped a 40-square-mile igneous intrusion in Brewster County, Texas. She later worked as a hydrogeologist for the State of Texas where she oversaw industrial, hazardous, and radioactive waste cleanups. Bobeck translates French and Spanish geological literature to English. In 2004, the American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation awarded her the S. Edmund Berger Prize for Excellence in Scientific and Technical Translation for her translation of Darcy’s Public Fountains of the City of Dijon.

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