An Alternative Method to Mariotte Reservoir System for Maintaining Constant Hydraulic Pressure

Several problems with the Mariotte reservoir system were discovered when it was used to apply a constant water pressure as a boundary condition for a prolonged period. The constant-pressure boundary condition is required for some laboratory experiments to study water flow through porous media. The observed problems were caused by temperature and barometric-pressure fluctuations while the flow rates were very small and caused erroneous water flow-rate measurements. An alternative method was developed and used where the water pressure is controlled by regulating its level by using water-level sensing electrodes. The new method eliminated the effects of temperature and barometric-pressure fluctuations and maintained an acceptable accuracy of the estimated water flow rate without compromising the advantages of the Mariotte reservoir.