Investigating peat hydrological properties using field and laboratory methods: application to the Lanoraie peatland complex (southern Quebec,Canada)

Flow dynamics within a peatland are governed by hydraulic parameters such as hydraulic conductivity, dispersivity and specific yield, as well as by anisotropy and heterogeneity. The aim of this study is to investigate hydraulic parameters variability in peat through the use of different field and laboratory methods. An experimental site located in the Lanoraie peatland complex (southern Quebec, Canada) was used to test the different approaches. Slug and bail tests were performed in piezometer standpipes to investigate catotelm hydraulic conductivity. Combined Darcy tests and tracer experiments were conducted on cubic samples using the modified cube method (MCM) to assess catotelm hydraulic conductivity, anisotropy and dispersivity. A new laboratory method is proposed for assessing acrotelm hydraulic conductivity and gravity drainage using a laboratory experimental tank. Most of slug tests' recovery curves were characteristic of compressible media, and important variability was observed depending on the initial head difference. The Darcy experiments on cubic samples provided reproducible results, and anisotropy (K_h > K_v) was observed for most of samples. All tracer experiments displayed asymmetrical breakthrough curves, suggesting the presence of retardation and/or dual porosity. Hydraulic conductivity estimates performed using the experimental tank showed K variations over a factor of 44 within the upper 40 cm of the acrotelm. The results demonstrate that the intrinsic variability associated with the different field and laboratory methods is small compared with the spatial variability of hydraulic parameters. It is suggested that a comprehensive assessment of peat hydrological properties can be obtained through the combined use of complementary field and laboratory investigations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A method to estimate hydraulic conductivity while drilling

A field test and analysis method has been developed to estimate the vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity in shallow unconsolidated aquifers. The field method uses fluid injection ports and pressure transducers in a hollow auger that measure the hydraulic head outside the auger at several distances from the injection point. A constant injection rate is maintained for a duration time sufficient for the system to become steady state. Exploiting the analogy between electrical resistivity in geophysics and hydraulic flow two methods are used to estimate conductivity with depth: a half-space model based on spherical flow from a point injection at each measurement site, and a one-dimensional inversion of an entire dataset.

The injection methodology, conducted in three separate drilling operations, was investigated for repeatability, reproducibility, linearity, and for different injection sources. Repeatability tests, conducted at 10 levels, demonstrated standard deviations of generally less than 10%. Reproducibility tests conducted in three, closely spaced drilling operations generally showed a standard deviation of less than 20%, which is probably due to lateral variations in hydraulic conductivity. Linearity tests, made to determine dependency on flow rates, showed no indication of a flow rate bias. In order to obtain estimates of the hydraulic conductivity by an independent means, a series of measurements were made by injecting water through screens installed at two separate depths in a monitoring pipe near the measurement site. These estimates differed from the corresponding estimates obtained by injection in the hollow auger by a factor of less than 3.5, which can be attributed to variations in geology and the inaccurate estimates of the distance between the measurement and the injection sites at depth.     

Dissolution of nonaqueous phase liquid pools in anisotropic aquifers

A two-dimensional numerical transport model is developed to determine the effect of aquifer anisotropy and heterogeneity on mass transfer from a dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) pool. The appropriate steady state groundwater flow equation is solved implicitly whereas the equation describing the transport of a sorbing contaminant in a confined aquifer is solved by the alternating direction implicit method. Statistical anisotropy in the aquifer is introduced by two-dimensional, random log-normal hydraulic conductivity field realizations with different directional correlation lengths. Model simulations indicate that DNAPL pool dissolution is enhanced by increasing the mean log-transformed hydraulic conductivity, groundwater flow velocity, and/or anisotropy ratio. The variance of the log-transformed hydraulic conductivity distribution is shown to be inversely proportional to the average mass transfer coefficient.     

Tensor Hydraulic Conductivity Estimation for Heterogeneous Aquifers under Unknown Boundary Conditions

A physically based inverse method is developed using hybrid formulation and coordinate transform to simultaneously estimate hydraulic conductivity tensors, steady‐state flow field, and boundary conditions for a confined aquifer under ambient flow or pumping condition. Unlike existing indirect inversion techniques, the physically based method does not require forward simulations to assess model‐data misfits. It imposes continuity of hydraulic head and Darcy fluxes in the model domain while incorporating observations (hydraulic heads, Darcy fluxes, or well rates) at measurement locations. Given sufficient measurements, it yields a well‐posed inverse system of equations that can be solved efficiently with coarse grids and nonlinear optimization. When pumping and injection are active, well rates are used as measurements and flux sampling is not needed. The method is successfully tested on synthetic aquifer problems with regular and irregular geometries, different hydrofacies and flow patterns, and increasing conductivity anisotropy ratios. All problems yield stable inverse solutions under increasing head measurement errors. For a given set of observations, inversion accuracy is strongly affected by the conductivity anisotropy ratio. Conductivity estimation is also affected by flow pattern: within a hydrofacies, when Darcy flux component is very small, the corresponding directional conductivity perpendicular to streamlines becomes less identifiable. Finally, inversion is successful even if the location of aquifer boundaries is unknown. In this case, the inversion domain is defined by the location of the measurements.     

Dual‐Screened Vertical Circulation Wells for Groundwater Lowering in Unconfined Aquifers

A new type of vertical circulation well (VCW) is used for groundwater dewatering at construction sites. This type of VCW consists of an abstraction screen in the upper part and an injection screen in the lower part of a borehole, whereby drawdown is achieved without net withdrawal of groundwater from the aquifer. The objective of this study is to evaluate the operation of such wells including the identification of relevant factors and parameters based on field data of a test site and comprehensive numerical simulations. The numerical model is able to delineate the drawdown of groundwater table, defined as free‐surface, by coupling the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian algorithm with the groundwater flow equation. Model validation is achieved by comparing the field observations with the model results. Eventually, the influences of selected well operation and aquifer parameters on drawdown and on the groundwater flow field are investigated by means of parameter sensitivity analysis. The results show that the drawdown is proportional to the flow rate, inversely proportional to the aquifer conductivity, and almost independent of the aquifer anisotropy in the direct vicinity of the well. The position of the abstraction screen has a stronger effect on drawdown than the position of the injection screen. The streamline pattern depends strongly on the separation length of the screens and on the aquifer anisotropy, but not on the flow rate and the horizontal hydraulic conductivity.     

Effects of Multiscale Anisotropy on Basin and Hyporheic Groundwater Flow

Various subsurface flow systems exhibit a combination of small‐scale to large‐scale anisotropy in hydraulic conductivity (K). The large‐scale anisotropy results from systematic trends (e.g., exponential decrease or increase) of K with depth. We present a general two‐dimensional solution for calculation of topography‐driven groundwater flow considering both small‐ and large‐scale anisotropy in K. This solution can be applied to diverse systems with arbitrary head distribution and geometry of the water table boundary, such as basin or hyporheic flow. In a special case, this solution reduces to the well‐known Tóth model of uniform isotropic basin. We introduce an integral measure of flushing intensity that quantifies flushing at different depths. Using this solution, we simulate heads and streamlines and provide analyses of flow structure in the flow domain, relevant to basin analyses or hyporheic flow. It is shown that interactions between small‐scale anisotropy and large‐scale anisotropy strongly control the flow structure. In the classic Tóth flow model, the flushing intensity curves exhibit quasi‐exponential decrease with depth. The new measure is capable of capturing subtle changes in the flow structure. Our study shows that both small‐ and large‐scale anisotropy characteristics have substantial effects that need to be integrated into analysis of topography‐driven flow.     

Generation of 3D Spatially Variable Anisotropy for Groundwater Flow Simulations

Sedimentary units generally present anisotropy in their hydraulic properties, with higher hydraulic conductivity along bedding planes, rather than perpendicular to them. This common property leads to a modeling challenge if the sedimentary structure is folded. In this paper, we show that the gradient of the geological potential used by implicit geological modeling techniques can be used to compute full hydraulic conductivity tensors varying in space according to the geological orientation. For that purpose, the gradient of the potential, a vector normal to the bedding, is used to construct a rotation matrix that allows the estimation of the 3D hydraulic conductivity tensor in a single matrix operation. A synthetic 2D cross section example is used to illustrate the method and show that flow simulations performed in such a folded environment are highly influenced by this rotating anisotropy. When using the proposed method, the streamlines follow very closely the folded formation. This is not the case with an isotropic model.     

Influence of bedding orientation on the anisotropy of hydraulic conductivity in a well-sorted fluvial sediment

The paper describes a permeameter test method for determination of the hydraulic conductivity(AT) along multi-directions in fluvial sediments with cross beddings.Unlike existing in-situ permeameter methods that determine hydraulic conductivity for submerged streambeds,our method was intended to measure hydraulic conductivity of exposed streambeds or fluvial sediments.The method was applied to the Wei River,Shaanxi Province,Central China for characterization of the anisotropy of K in a well-sorted fluvial sediment.The results illustrated that even in well-sorted sediments,cross-bedding and sediment fabrication(or texture) can lead to varied K values along different measurement directions.The K value was the largest along the dip direction(or the major direction) that is parallel to the orientation of cross bedding and the smallest in the direction perpendicular to the bedding(or the minor direction). The K value in a given direction between the major and minor direction often fell in the range bounded by the K values in the major and minor directions.The anisotropy ratio of K(the ratio of K value between the major and minor directions) in two trenches for this well-sorted fluvial sediment was up to 1.14 to 1.23,respectively.Our results also demonstrated that even for well-sorted sediments,the K values between two sampling points only about 10 cm apart can differ.It is clear that the K distribution strongly correlates to the bedding orientation.     

Ground water whirls

Numerical experiments with steady-state ground water flow models show that spiraling flow lines occur in layered aquifers that have different anisotropic horizontal hydraulic conductivities in adjacent layers. Bundles of such flow lines turning in the same direction can be referred to as ground water whirls. An anisotropic layered block in a field of uniform horizontal flow results in one or more whirls with their axes in the uniform flow direction. The number of whirls depends on the number of interfaces between layers with different anisotropic properties. For flow to a well in an aquifer consisting of two anisotropic layers, with perpendicular major principal directions, whirls are found to occur in quadrants that are bounded by the principal directions of the hydraulic conductivity. The combined effect of flow to a well and a layered anisotropy implies that a single well in a system with a single anisotropic layer within an otherwise isotropic aquifer causes eight whirls. All adjacent whirls rotate in opposite directions.     

Tracer Test Analysis of Anisotropy in Hydraulic Conductivity of Granular Aquifers

A simple method of determining the anisotropy ratio of hydraulic conductivity in near-surface granular aquifers using tracer test and piezometer measurements is presented. Depending on the length of time allowed, the test will yield anisotropy ratios that are representative of the distance traversed by the tracer during the test, up to tens of feet from the injection point for some systems. This method is illustrated with an application to a ground water flow system in northern Wisconsin.     

一维电阻率各向异性对海洋可控源电磁响应的影响研究

地下介质的电阻率常常表现为各向异性,海底裂隙地层和层状沉积序列可能形成宏观电阻率各向异性.在解释海洋电磁资料时,电阻率各向异性的影响不应该被忽略,否则可能会得到错误的海底地电模型.作者编写了电阻率任意各向异性一维层状介质海洋可控源电磁场计算程序,计算了电阻率各向异性层状模型的海洋可控源电磁响应,讨论了覆盖层和高阻储层分别具有电阻率各向异性时的电磁场响应特征.     

Analysis of subsurface contaminant migration and remediation using high performance computing

Highly resolved simulations of groundwater flow, chemical migration and contaminant recovery processes are used to test the applicability of stochastic models of flow and transport in a typical field setting. A simulation domain encompassing a portion of the upper saturated aquifer materials beneath the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was developed to hierarchically represent known hydrostratigraphic units and more detailed stochastic representations of geologic heterogeneity within them. Within each unit, Gaussian random field models were used to represent hydraulic conductivity variation, as parameterized from well test data and geologic interpretation of spatial variability. Groundwater flow, transport and remedial extraction of two hypothetical contaminants were made in six different statistical realizations of the system. The effective flow and transport behavior observed in the simulations compared reasonably with the predictions of stochastic theories based upon the Gaussian models, even though more exacting comparisons were prevented by inherent nonidealities of the geologic model and flow system. More importantly, however, biases and limitations in the hydraulic data appear to have reduced the applicability of the Gaussian representations and clouded the utility of the simulations and effective behavior based upon them. This suggests a need for better and unbiased methods for delineating the spatial distribution and structure of geologic materials and hydraulic properties in field systems. High performance computing can be of critical importance in these endeavors, especially with respect to resolving transport processes within highly variable media.©1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved     

Biaxial anisotropy in geoelectric prospecting

In applied studies on electromagnetic well-logging and electric prospecting, a medium is supposed to be either isotropic or with conventional anisotropy of conductivity. However, in the meantime, there is a clear hint that a medium may exhibit even biaxial anisotropy; i.e., the resistances along all three directions X, and Y, Z are different. Based on the analytical solution by the method of separation of variables, the paper considers an algorithm for the calculation of the electromagnetic field in a layered medium with biaxial conductivity anisotropy involving an arbitrary direction of horizontal conductivities in each layer. In this case, the theoretical solution and the algorithm display substantial peculiarities, and the numerical implementation involves many complexities. These problems were examined and solved mainly due to the constant comparison with the calculations carried by the finite element method and their analysis. Programs for the calculation of electromagnetic fields in the frequency and time domains were developed, and results of geoelectric interest were obtained. For example, the excitement of a horizontally-layered section by a magnetic dipole produces a vertical electric component of the field.     

Equivalent diffusion coefficient of clay-rich geological formations: comparison between numerical and analytical estimates

Laboratory experiments in rock samples collected from clay-rich formations indicate that the effective molecular diffusion coefficient (D) is a heterogeneous and anisotropic property. Since laboratory measurements of D are representative of a very small volume, upscaling is necessary in order to incorporate these data in large-scale numerical models of diffusive transport. In this work we address the problem of the estimating the equivalent diffusion coefficient (D _eq ), in terms of total diffusive flux, in a three-dimensional domain characterized by a heterogeneous and anisotropic spatial distribution of D. D _eq was estimated from the results of steady-state diffusive transport simulations through several realizations of the D field. The ensemble averages of D _eq from fields with different degrees of heterogeneity and anisotropy were then compared with estimates from analytical upscaling expressions based on stochastic as well as power-averaging approaches. These expressions are largely based on similar expressions developed for calculating the effective hydraulic conductivity in heterogeneous and anisotropic domains. Comparisons showed that stochastic expressions provide accurate estimates of D _eq only for fields characterized by low heterogeneity. Within the range of heterogeneity and anisotropy considered, our results showed that a power-averaging expression is very accurate in predicting D _eq especially when the parameter p _i is estimated through fitting of the numerical results. Nonetheless, the relationship between this parameter and the anisotropy ratio is linear.     

A continuum representation of fracture networks. Part II: application to the Äspö Hard Rock laboratory

A method to represent fracture networks in a continuum model is evaluated by an application to the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (HRL). The basic approach of the method is to first generate a fracture network, based on data from field measurements and then represent the network as grid cell conductivities, using a staggered grid arrangement. It is argued that the resulting conductivity fields capture the correlation and anisotropy structures, as well as the mean conductivity, of the rock in a realistic way. The main objective is to evaluate if the suggested method can be used in an application to a real site. The objective is formulated in three questions: ‘Can the method utilize available field data?’, ‘Can the generated fields be calibrated and conditioned?’ and ‘Are realistic distributions of pressure, flow and density obtained?’. From the application to the Äspö HRL, it is concluded that the hydraulic conductivity fields, generated by the suggested method, can utilize field data and be calibrated. It is also demonstrated that realistic distributions of pressure, flow and density can be simulated.     

Underdamped slug tests with unsaturated‐saturated flows by considering effects of wellbore skins

An analytical solution is presented for the slug tests conducted in a partially penetrating well in an unconfined aquifer affected from above by an unsaturated zone. The solution considers the effects of wellbore skin and oscillatory responses on underdamped slug tests. The flow in the saturated zone is described by a two‐dimensional, axially symmetric governing equation, and the flow in the unsaturated zone above the water table by a linearized one‐dimensional Richards' equation. The unsaturated medium properties are represented by the exponential constitutive relationships. A Laplace domain solution is derived using the Laplace and finite Fourier transform and the solution in the real‐time domain is evaluated using the numerical inverse Laplace transform method. The solution derived in this study is more general and reduces to the most commonly used solutions for slug tests in their specified conditions. It is found that the unsaturated flow has a significant impact on the slug test conducted in an unconfined aquifer. The impact of unsaturated flow on such a slug test is enhanced with a larger anisotropy ratio, a shorter well screen length, a shorter distance between the well screen and the water table, or a larger well screen radius. The impact of unsaturated flow on slug tests decreases as the degree of penetration (the length of well screen) increases. For a fixed well screen length, the impact of unsaturated flow on slug tests decreases as the distance between the centre of screen and the water table increases. A large dimensionless well screen radius (>0.01) leads to significant effects of unsaturated flow on slug tests. The unsaturated flow reduces the oscillatory responses to underdamped slug tests. The unsaturated zone has significant impact on slug test under high‐permeability wellbore skin.     

Effects of Improper Characterization of Aquifer Thickness on Estimates of Hydraulic Conductivity from Pumping Tests

Pumping test data for surficial aquifers are commonly analyzed under the assumption that the base of the aquifer corresponds to the bottom of the test wells (i.e., the aquifer is truncated). This practice can lead to inaccurate hydraulic conductivity estimates, resulting from the use of low saturated thickness values with transmissivity estimates, and not accounting for the effects of partially penetrating wells. Theoretical time-drawdown data were generated at an observation well in a hypothetical unconfined aquifer for various values of saturated thickness and were analyzed by standard curve-matching techniques. The base of the aquifer was assumed to be the bottom of the pumping and observation wells. The overestimation of horizontal hydraulic conductivity was found to be directly proportional to the error in assumed saturated thickness, and to the (actual) ratio of vertical to horizontal hydraulic conductivity (K_v/K_h). Inaccurately high estimates of hydraulic conductivity obtained by aquifer truncation can lead to overestimates of ground water velocity and contaminant plume spreading, narrow capture zone configuration estimates, and overestimates of available ground water resources.     

Hydraulics of a partially penetrating well with skin zone in a confined aquifer

A steady/quasi-steady model is developed for predicting flow into a partially penetrating well with skin zone in a confined aquifer overlying an impervious layer. The model takes into account flow through the bottom of the wellbore, finite skin thickness and finite horizontal and vertical extent of the aquifer. Moreover, the solution can be easily extended to include the mixed-type boundary condition at the well face, where a Dirichlet in the form of a specified hydraulic head and a Neumann in the form of zero flux coexist at the same time at different portions of the well face. The validity of the proposed solution is tested by comparing a few results obtained from the developed model with corresponding results obtained by analytical and numerical means. The study shows that, among other factors remaining constant, both the horizontal and vertical extent of an artesian aquifer, thickness of the skin zone, bottom flow and conductivity contrast of the skin and formation zones, play an important part in deciding flow to a well dug in the aquifer, and hence these factors must be considered while analyzing the problem. The model proposed here can be used to estimate skin thickness as well as hydraulic conductivities of the skin and formation zones of a well with skin zone in an artesian aquifer underlain by an impervious layer by utilizing pumping test data falling in the steady or quasi-steady state of a typical pumping test. As the proposed solution is of a general nature in the sense that it can handle, apart from partial penetration and bottom flow, the finite size skin zone and finite horizontal and vertical extent of an artesian aquifer together with the mixed-type boundary condition at the well face, it is hoped that the predictions coming out of the model will be more realistic than those obtained using solutions developed with more stringent assumptions.     

Geostatistical traveltime tomography in elliptically anisotropic media

In geological materials, anisotropy may arise due to different mechanisms and can be found at different scales. Neglecting anisotropy in traveltime tomographic reconstruction leads to artefacts that can obscure important subsurface features. In this paper, a geostatistical tomography algorithm to invert cross‐hole traveltime data in elliptically anisotropic media is presented. The advantages of geostatistical tomography are that the solution is regularized by the covariance of the model parameters, that known model parameters can be used as constraints and fitted exactly or within a prescribed variance and that stochastic simulations can be performed to appraise the variability of the solution space. The benefits of the algorithm to image anisotropic media are illustrated by two examples using synthetic georadar data and real seismic data. The first example confirms suspected electromagnetic anisotropy in the vadose zone caused by relatively rapid water content variations with respect to wavelength at georadar frequencies. The second presents how sonic log data can be used to constrain the inversion of cross‐well seismic data and how geostatistical simulations can be used to infer parameter uncertainty. Results of both examples show that considering anisotropy yields a better fit to the data at high ray angles and reduces reconstruction artefacts.