Subject- Water Resources Engineering

WELLS,
TYPES OF WELLS

By
Denish Jangid
Assistant Professor
Civil Engineering Department
 Overview of lecture

1. Introduction

2. Wells and Tube Wells Irrigation in

India : Merit & demerits

3. Open well and classification of

open well

4. Tube well and classification of tube

well
 INTRODUCTION
Well: It is a vertical structure dug in ground for purpose
of bringing ground water to the earth’s surface
Basically wells are classified as follows :
 Open wells (Dug wells)
 Tube wells
There were about 5 million wells in 1950-51 and their
number has now increased to about 12 million.

Uttar Pradesh has the largest area of 93-84 lakh

hectares under well irrigation which accounts for
about 28-19 per cent of the well irrigated area of
India.

This is followed by Rajasthan (10-44%), Punjab (8-

65%), Madhya Pradesh (7-97%), and Gujarat (7-34%)
Bihar (6-29%), Andhra Pradesh (5-87%), Maharashtra
(5-75%), Haryana (4-41%), Tamil Nadu (4-35%), West
Bengal (4 19%) and Karnataka (3.06%).
 Wells and Tube Wells Irrigation in India :
Merit

1. Well is simplest and cheapest source of irrigation

and the poor Indian farmer can easily afford it.

2 Well is an independent source of irrigation and can

be used as and when the necessity arises. Canal
irrigation, on the other hand, is controlled by other
agencies and cannot be used at will.

3. Excessive irrigation by canal leads to the problem of

reh which is not the case with well irrigation.
4. There is a limit to the extent of canal irrigation
beyond the tail end of the canal while a well can be
dug at any convenient place.

5 Several chemicals such as nitrate, chloride,

sulphate, etc. are generally found mixed in well
water. They add to the fertility of soil when they
reach the agricultural field along with well water.

6. The farmer has to pay regularly for canal irrigation

which is not the case with well irrigation.
Wells & Tube Wells Irrigation in India :Demerits
1.Only limited area can be irrigated. Normally, a well can
irrigate 1 to 8 hectares of land.

2. The well may dry up and may be rendered useless for

irrigation if excessive water is taken out

3. In the event of a drought, the ground water level falls and

enough water is not available in the well when it is needed
the most.

4. Tube wells can draw a lot of groundwater from its

neighbouring areas and make the ground dry and unfit for
agriculture.

5. Well and tube well irrigation is not possible in areas of

brackish groundwater.
 OPEN WELL

These are the wells which have comparatively

large diameters and lower discharges
Usually they have discharge of 20 m³/hr but if
constructed by efficient planning it gives
discharge of 200-300 m³/hr
They are constructed of diameter of about 1-10 m
and have depth of about 2-20m
They are constructed by digging therefore they
are also known as dug wells
CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN WELL BASED ON DEPTH

1. Shallow open well : These are the wells resting

on the water bearing strata and gets their supplies
from the surrounding materials

2. Deep open well : These are the wells resting on

the impervious layer known as mota layer beneath
which lies water bearing pervious layer and gets
their supply from this layer
CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN WELL BASED ON DEPTH
CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN WELL BASED ON
/
TYPE OF Lining Walls
Kachha wells : These type of wells are only
constructed when water table is high as these type
of wells sometimes collapses.

It has no lining. The well sides are unprotected. Also

called unlined well. It is limited depth well. Like 6
Meter
CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN WELL BASED ON TYPE
OF Lining

Wells with Impervious lining : These are most

suitable and stable type of open well. These are
constructed by first digging a pit then a curb which
is a circular ring with sharp bottom is inserted .
Then a masonry wall up to some distance above
ground is constructed , then as excavation proceeds
it sinks blow and then masonry is further extended
and well is constructed. As water enters from the
bottom type of flow is spherical.
CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN WELL BASED ON TYPE
OF Lining

Well with pervious lining : These type of wells are

suitable in coarse formations these are constructed
by masonry of dry bricks or stones without any
binding materials. So the water supply enters from
the wall of well therefore the flow is radial. Such
wells are provided with bottom plug so the flow is
not combination of radial and spherical.
 TUBE WELLS
A tube well is a long pipe sunk in ground
intercepting one or more water bearing strata.

As compared to open well there diameter is less

about 80-600 mm. Tube well is a type of water well in which a
long 100–200 millimetres stainless steel tube or pipe is bored
into an underground aquifer. The lower end is fitted with a
strainer, and a pump at the top lifts water for irrigation.

A tube well is a deeper well from which water is lifted with

the help of a pumping set operated by an electric motor or a
diesel engine. Obviously, a tube well cannot be constructed
everywhere and requires some geographical conditions
favouring its installation.
The first tube well of India was sunk in Uttar Pradesh
in 1930. Till 1951 India had just 2,500 tube wells. The
central and the state governments are helping the
farmers by distributing pumping sets, granting loans
and giving subsidies.

The number of electrical pump sets/tube wells

increased from 2 lakh in 1960 to over 4 million in 1995-
96 while the dieselized pump sets increased from 2 3
lakh to about 3 million during the same period.
The main factors for installing the tube well:

(i) There should be sufficient quantity of ground water because a tube well
can generally irrigate 2 hectares per day against 0.2 hectares per day
irrigated by an ordinary well.

(ii) The water level should be nearly 15 metres. If the water table is more
than 50 metres deep the cost of pumping out water from the tube well
becomes uneconomic.

(iii) There should be regular supply of cheap electricity or diesel so that

water from the tube well can be taken out at the hour of need.

(iv) The soil in the immediate neighbourhood of the tube-well should be

fertile so that there is demand for irrigation and the cost involved in the
construction and operation of the tube well can be recovered by the
increased farm production.
 CLASSIFICATION OF TUBE WELL BASED ON DEPTH

Shallow tube well : These are the tube which has

depth limited to 30 meters and maximum have
discharge of 20 m³/hr
Deep tube well : These are the tube wells which
have maximum depth of about 600 m and may give
discharge more then 800 m³/hr
CLASSIFICATION OF TUBE WELL BASED ON SUPPLY SYSTEM

Strainer type tube well : These is

most commonly used tube such that in
general a tube well means strainer
tube well. In this type of well a
strainer which a wire mesh with
small openings is wrapped around
the main pipe which also has large
openings such that area of opening
in strainer and main pipe remains
same. Annual space is left between
two strainer so that the open area of
pipe perforations is not reduced.
The type of flow is radial.
In tube wells the metal pipe driven in ground is perforated to
allow only clear water to enter the hole. It is obvious that if no
other means is adopted the perforations in the metal tube will
have to be made very fine. It is very costly process.

As an alternative wire net may be wrapped on the cylindrical

frame of small diameter but it is liable to break as it is very
delicate. So the best and most commonly adopted practice is to
provide a pipe with fairly big perforations and surrounding that
is a wire net or a strainer with smaller openings.

Normally the mesh size of the wire net or strainer is kept equal
to D to D of the surrounding soil. This type of well derives water
from one aquifer of unlimited extent or from a confined aquifer
or from number of aquifers.
 CLASSIFICATION OF TUBE WELL BASED ON SUPPLY SYSTEM
Cavity tube well : A cavity type tube well
consists of a pipe sunk in ground up to the hard
clay layer . It draws water from the bottom of
well . In initial stages fine sand is also pumped
with water and in such manner a cavity is
formed at the bottom so the water enters from
the aquifer into the well through this cavity
. It is an empty space within a solid object.
A cavity type tube well draws water from
bottom of the well and not from the sides and is
drilled in alluvial formation.
The flow in a cavity well is spherical.
The area of flow is increased by enlarging the
size of cavity.
HOW IS THE CAVITY FORMED?
The tube well is taken down till it penetrates the
impervious or (mota) layer and reaches the water
bearing layer. In the initial stages when the water is
pumped out fine sand comes in the tube well with
the water and consequently a hollow or cavity is
formed at the bottom.
After the cavity formation only clear water enters the
tube well. Since the rate of pumping is more, the
velocity of water entering the coarse sand layer is
critical but when it comes in the hollow the velocity
is reduced. Finally the water enters the tube well at
the bottom with a velocity lower than the critical
velocity.
Developing a cavity:
1) A centrifugal pump is generally adopted for
developing a cavity well.
2) Generally the depth of cavity is small (in
centimetres).
CLASSIFICATION OF TUBE WELL BASED ON SUPPLY SYSTEM
3. Slotted Type Tube well:
Sometimes the nature of subsoil
formation is not anticipated correctly.
Obviously bore hole driven for
constructing strainer well will be a
failure. If a mota formation is present
cavity well may be resorted to.

But if neither of the conditions are

existing the slotted tube well can be
rightly constructed. There should be of
course an aquifer present at the bottom.

In the bore hole (say 36 cm diameter) a 15

cm diameter education pipe is lowered till
it reaches the bottom. The bottom of the
education pipe is slotted as shown in Fig.

The size of the slots may be 25 mm x 3

mm with 12 mm spacing