A general analytical solution for flow to a single horizontal well by Fourier and Laplace transforms

The objective of this paper is to present an analytical solution for describing the head distribution in an unconfined aquifer with a single pumping horizontal well parallel to a fully penetrating stream. The Laplace-domain solution is developed by applying Fourier sine, Fourier and Laplace transforms to the governing equation as well as the associated initial and boundary conditions. The time-domain solution is obtained after taking the inverse Laplace transform along with the Bromwich integral method and inverse Fourier and Fourier sine transforms. The upper boundary condition of the aquifer is represented by the free surface equation in which the second-order slope terms are neglected. Based on the solution and Darcy’s law, the equation representing the stream depletion rate is then derived. The solution can simulate head distributions in an aquifer infinitely extending in horizontal direction if the well is located far away from the stream. In addition, the solution can also simulate head distributions in confined aquifers if specific yield is set zero. It is shown that the solution can be applied practically to evaluate flow to a horizontal well.     

THE USE OF VARIATIONAL METHODS AND OF ERROR DISTRIBUTION PRINCIPLES IN GROUNDWATER HYDRAULICS

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to present some mathematical techniques for the solution of problems connected with three-dimensional steady-state groundwater flow with a free surface. The validity of Darcy's law is assumed. As no use is made of the Dupuit-Forschheimer approximation, the shape of the free surface and the velocity potential must be determined simultaneously from a non-linear boundary value problem. In order to demonstrate the use of a variational method and of error distribution principles for the solution of those problems by an example as simple as possible, we investigate the gravity flow of incompressible, homogeneous groundwater towards a circular well completely penetrating an isotropic, homogeneous, inelastic aquifer resting on a horizontal, impermeable substratum.     

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.     

Analysis of steady ground water flow toward wells in a confined-unconfined aquifer

A confined aquifer may become unconfined near the pumping wells when the water level falls below the confining unit in the case where the pumping rate is great and the excess hydraulic head over the top of the aquifer is small. Girinskii's potential function is applied to analyze the steady ground water flow induced by pumping wells with a constant-head boundary in a mixed confined-unconfined aquifer. The solution of the single-well problem is derived, and the critical radial distance at which the flow changes from confined to unconfined condition is obtained. Using image wells and the superposition method, an analytic solution is presented to study steady ground water flow induced by a group of pumping wells in an aquifer bounded by a river with constant head. A dimensionless function is introduced to determine whether a water table condition exists or not near the pumping wells. An example with three pumping wells is used to demonstrate the patterns of potentiometric surface and development of water table around the wells.     

Groundwater chemistry in intrapermafrost taliks in Central Yakutia

An intrapermafrost aquifer system, which is widespread in the sand deposits of bestyakhskaya terrace of the Lena R. (Central Yakutia), is characterized by generalized data of many-year studies of its groundwater chemistry. The groundwater discharges onto land surface through high-yield springs. The largest such source forms the Ulakhan-Taryn Creek with a mean many-year yield of 20 740 m³/day. The results of generalization were used to show the chemistry of intrapermafrost water to be stable at both many-year and annual scales, to characterize the hydraulic interaction of intrapermafrost water with suprapermafrost and subpermafrost water, to assess the spatial variations of groundwater resources in the intrapermafrost aquifer from the head-formation to the discharge domain. The results of the study are of importance for solving the problem of centralized drinking water supply to large populated localities in the Central Yakutia, including Yakutsk City.     

Flowing partially penetrating well: solution to a mixed-type boundary value problem

A new semi-analytic solution to the mixed-type boundary value problem for a flowing partially penetrating well with infinitesimal skin situated in an anisotropic aquifer is developed. The solution is suited to aquifers having a semi-infinite vertical extent or to packer tests with aquifer horizontal boundaries far enough from the tested area. The problem reduces to a system of dual integral equations (DE) and further to a deconvolution problem. Unlike the analogous Dagan's steady-state solution [Water Resour. Res. 1978; 14:929–34], our DE solution does not suffer from numerical oscillations. The new solution is validated by matching the corresponding finite-difference solution and is computationally much more efficient. An automated (Newton–Raphson) parameter identification algorithm is proposed for field test inversion, utilizing the DE solution for the forward model. The procedure is computationally efficient and converges to correct parameter values. A solution for the partially penetrating flowing well with no skin and a drawdown–drawdown discontinuous boundary condition, analogous to that by Novakowski [Can. Geotech. J. 1993; 30:600–6], is compared to the DE solution. The D–D solution leads to physically inconsistent infinite total flow rate to the well, when no skin effect is considered. The DE solution, on the other hand, produces accurate results.     

A method for evaluating horizontal well pumping tests

Predicting the future performance of horizontal wells under varying pumping conditions requires estimates of basic aquifer parameters, notably transmissivity and storativity. For vertical wells, there are well-established methods for estimating these parameters, typically based on either the recovery from induced head changes in a well or from the head response in observation wells to pumping in a test well. Comparable aquifer parameter estimation methods for horizontal wells have not been presented in the ground water literature. Formation parameter estimation methods based on measurements of pressure in horizontal wells have been presented in the petroleum industry literature, but these methods have limited applicability for ground water evaluation and are based on pressure measurements in only the horizontal well borehole, rather than in observation wells. This paper presents a simple and versatile method by which pumping test procedures developed for vertical wells can be applied to horizontal well pumping tests. The method presented here uses the principle of superposition to represent the horizontal well as a series of partially penetrating vertical wells. This concept is used to estimate a distance from an observation well at which a vertical well that has the same total pumping rate as the horizontal well will produce the same drawdown as the horizontal well. This equivalent distance may then be associated with an observation well for use in pumping test algorithms and type curves developed for vertical wells. The method is shown to produce good results for confined aquifers and unconfined aquifers in the absence of delayed yield response. For unconfined aquifers, the presence of delayed yield response increases the method error.     

SH波入射时半圆形凸起地形附近浅埋圆形衬砌结构的动应力分析

本文给出了地下圆形衬砌结构与地面上的半圆形凸起地形对垂直于地面入射的SH波散射问题的解答。方法是将求解区域分割成两部分。其一为包含半圆形凸起地形在内的圆形区域Ⅰ，其二为带有一个半圆形凹陷和一个圆形衬砌结构的弹性半空间Ⅱ，半圆形凹陷部分为其公共边界，在区域Ⅰ和Ⅱ中分别构造其位移解，然后再通过移动坐标，使其满足“公共边界”上的条件和地下衬砌的边界条件，建立起求解该问题的无穷代数方程组。最后，本文给出了算例，并讨论了数值结果，给出了圆形衬砌结构周边上的动应力集中系数变化规律。     

SH波入射时柔性基础上等腰三角形坝体结构的出平面反应

本文利用复变函数和坐标移动方法研究了SH波入射对柔性基础上等腰三角形坝体结构的影响。首先建立问题的数学模型并根据分区和辅助函数法将模型分割为2部分,其1为等腰三角形和半圆形组成的区域Ⅰ,其余为区域Ⅱ;其2在区域Ⅰ内构造1个满足等腰三角形两边应力自由的驻波解,在区域Ⅱ内构造满足水平边界应力自由的散射波;通过移动坐标在区域Ⅰ、Ⅱ的公共边界实现位移和应力的连续,建立起求解该问题的无穷代数方程组;最后,本文给出了例题和数值结果并对其进行了讨论,并通过算例强调了与文献[9]的本质区别。     

A Stable and Efficient Numerical Algorithm for Unconfined Aquifer Analysis

The nonlinearity of equations governing flow in unconfined aquifers poses challenges for numerical models, particularly in field-scale applications. Existing methods are often unstable, do not converge, or require extremely fine grids and small time steps. Standard modeling procedures such as automated model calibration and Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis typically require thousands of model runs. Stable and efficient model performance is essential to these analyses. We propose a new method that offers improvements in stability and efficiency and is relatively tolerant of coarse grids. It applies a strategy similar to that in the MODFLOW code to the solution of Richard's equation with a grid-dependent pressure/saturation relationship. The method imposes a contrast between horizontal and vertical permeability in gridblocks containing the water table, does not require "dry" cells to convert to inactive cells, and allows recharge to flow through relatively dry cells to the water table. We establish the accuracy of the method by comparison to an analytical solution for radial flow to a well in an unconfined aquifer with delayed yield. Using a suite of test problems, we demonstrate the efficiencies gained in speed and accuracy over two-phase simulations, and improved stability when compared to MODFLOW. The advantages for applications to transient unconfined aquifer analysis are clearly demonstrated by our examples. We also demonstrate applicability to mixed vadose zone/saturated zone applications, including transport, and find that the method shows great promise for these types of problem as well.     

An analytical solution for ground water transit time through unconfined aquifers

An exact, closed-form analytical solution is developed for calculating ground water transit times within Dupuit-type flow systems. The solution applies to steady-state, saturated flow through an unconfined, horizontal aquifer recharged by surface infiltration and discharging to a downgradient fixed-head boundary. The upgradient boundary can represent, using the same equation, a no-flow boundary or a fixed head. The approach is unique for calculating travel times because it makes no a priori assumptions regarding the limit of the water table rise with respect to the minimum saturated aquifer thickness. The computed travel times are verified against a numerical model, and examples are provided, which show that the predicted travel times can be on the order of nine times longer relative to existing analytical solutions.     

Polynomial-based approximate solutions to the Boussinesq equation near a well

This paper presents a method for constructing polynomial-based approximate solutions to the Boussinesq equation with cylindrical symmetry. This equation models water injection at a single well in an unconfined aquifer; as a sample problem we examine recharge of an initially empty aquifer. For certain injection regimes it is possible to introduce similarity variables, reducing the original problem to a boundary-value problem for an ordinary differential equation. The approximate solutions introduced here incorporate both a singular part to model the behavior near the well and a polynomial part to model the behavior in the far field. Although the nonlinearity of the problem prevents decoupling of the singular and polynomial parts, the paper presents an approach for calculating the solution based on its spatial moments. This approach yields closed-form expressions for the position of the wetting front and for the form of the phreatic surface. Comparison with a highly accurate numerical solution verifies the accuracy of the newly derived approximate solutions.     

Aquifer Properties Determined from Two Analytical Solutions

In the analysis of pumping test data, the quality of the determined aquifer parameters can be greatly improved by using a proper model of the aquifer system. Moench (1995) provided an analytical solution for flow to a well partially penetrating an unconfined aquifer. His solution, in contrast to the Neuman solution (1974), accounts for the noninstantaneous decline of the water table (delayed yield). Consequently, the calculated drawdown in these two solutions is different under certain circumstances, and this difference may therefore affect the computation of aquifer properties from pumping test data. This paper uses an inverse computational method to calculate four aquifer parameters as well as a delayed yield parameter, α₁ from pumping test data using both the Neuman (1974) and Moench (1995) solutions. Time-drawdown data sets from a pumping test in an unconfined alluvial aquifer near Grand Island, Nebraska, were analyzed. In single-well analyses, horizontal hydraulic conductivity values derived from the Moench solution are lower, but vertical hydraulic conductivity values are higher than those calculated from the Neuman solution. However, the hydraulic conductivity values in composite-well analyses from both solutions become very close. Furthermore, the Neuman solution produces similar hydraulic conductivity values in the single-well and composite-well analyses, but the Moench solution does not. While variable α₁, seems to play a role in affecting the computation of aquifer parameters in the single-well analysis, a much smaller effect was observed in the composite-well analysis. In general, specific yield determined using the Moench solution could be slightly higher than the values from the Neuman solution; however, they are still lower than the realistic values for sand and gravel aquifers.     

Analytical Design Curves to Maximize Pumping or Minimize Injection in Coastal Aquifers

Explicit algebraic equations are derived to determine approximate maximum pumping rates or minimum injection rates to limit sea water intrusion to a prespecified distance from the coastline. The equations are based on Strack's (1976) single-potential solution. The maximum pumping rates and minimum injection rates applied at wells with uniform spacing to control the inland movement of the fresh water-salt water interface in a coastal aquifer could be calculated from Strack's (1976) solution without the need of a numerical optimization algorithm. When wells are distributed in a simple fashion, the maximum intrusion location can be identified precisely for pumping cases and approximately for injection cases. For pumping cases, critical points are the limit of allowable salt water intrusion, whereas no such limit exists for injection cases. Once an application site is identified, a series of design curves for pumping and injection rates can be developed for arbitrary intrusion limits. When a user is interested only in the largest pumping rates associated with critical points, one design curve can yield complete information.     

INSTABILITY OF FINITE DIFFERENCE SCHEMES DUE TO BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN ELASTIC MEDIA*

The manner in which boundary conditions are approximated and introduced into finite difference schemes may have an important influence on the stability and accuracy of the results. The standard von Neumann condition for stability applies only for points which are not in the vicinity of the boundaries. This stability condition does not take into consideration the effects caused by introducing the boundary conditions to the scheme. Working on elastic media with free stress boundary conditions we found that the boundary approximation gives rise to serious stability problems especially for regions with high Poisson's ratio. In order to detect these effects apriori and to analyse them, we have used a more elaborate procedure for checking the stability of the scheme which takes into consideration the boundary conditions. It is based on studying a locally spaced time propagating matrix which governs the time-space behavior of a small region of the grid which includes free surface points. By using this procedure a better insight into the nature of instability caused by the approximations to the boundary conditions was gained which led us to a new stable approximation for the free surface boundary conditions.     

Predicting Collector Well Yields with MODFLOW

Groundwater flow models are commonly used to design new wells and wellfields. As the spatial scale of the problem is large and much local‐scale detail is not needed, modelers often utilize two‐dimensional (2D) or quasi three‐dimensional models based on the Dupuit‐Forchheimer assumption. Dupuit models offer a robust set of tools for simulating regional groundwater flow including interactions with surface waters, the potential for well interference, and varying aquifer properties and recharge rates. However, given an assumed operating water level or drawdown at a well screen, Dupuit models systematically overpredict well yields. For design purposes, this discrepancy is unacceptable, and a method for predicting accurate well yields is needed. While published methods exist for vertical wells, little guidance is available for predicting yields in horizontal screens or collector wells. In plan view, a horizontal screen has a linear geometry, and will likely extend over several neighboring cells that may not align with rows or columns in a numerical model. Furthermore, the model must account for the effects of converging three‐dimensional (3D) flow to the well screens and hydraulic interference among the well screens; these all depend on the design of a specific well. This paper presents a new method for simulating the yield of angled or horizontal well screens in numerical groundwater flow models, specifically using the USGS code MODFLOW. The new method is compared to a detailed, 3D analytic element model of a collector well in a field of uniform flow.     

Analysis of continuous and pulsed pumping of a phreatic aquifer

In a phreatic aquifer, fresh water is withdrawn by pumping from a recovery well. As is the case here, the interfacial surface (air/water) is typically assumed to be a sharp boundary between the regions occupied by each fluid. The pumping efficiency depends on the method by which the fluid is withdrawn. We consider the efficiency of both continuous and pulsed pumping. The maximum steady pumping rate, above which the undesired fluid will break through into the well, is defined as critical pumping rate. This critical rate can be determined analytically using an existing solution based on the hodograph method, while a Boundary Element Method is applied to examine a high flow rate, pulsed pumping strategy in an attempt to achieve more rapid withdrawal. A modified kinematic interface condition, which incorporates the effect of capillarity, is used to simulate the fluid response of pumping. It is found that capillarity influences significantly the relationship between the pumping frequency and the fluid response. A Hele-Shaw model is set up for experimental verification of the analytical and numerical solutions in steady and unsteady cases for pumping of a phreatic aquifer. When capillarity is included in the numerical model, close agreement is found in the computed and observed phreatic surfaces. The same model without capillarity predicts the magnitude of the free surface fluctuation induced by the pulsed pumping, although the phase of the fluctuation is incorrect.     

Evaluation of the range of horizontal stresses in the earth's upper crust by using a collinear crack model

Vertical stresses in the earth's upper crust may be evaluated by the depth times the average unit weight of the overlying rock mass; however, the horizontal stress is difficult to obtain. Rock usually contains joints or cracks, and its fracture toughness is limited. If the horizontal stress acting on a cracked rock body exceeds a certain range, the crack will propagate and lead to rock fracture; and if a cracked rock is stable, the horizontal stress must be within a certain range. Therefore, from the stability condition of cracks, the range of horizontal stress can be evaluated. In this paper, a collinear crack model is employed to establish the cracked rock stability condition, and our theoretical results generally agree with the in-situ measurement results. The theoretical results can well explain the phenomenon that the ratio of horizontal stress to vertical stress near crust surface is scattered in a wide range, but in deep zone, it is scattered in a narrow range.     

SH波在浅埋可移动圆柱形刚性夹杂处的散射与地震动

采用复函数、多极坐标法研究了含有可移动圆柱形刚性夹杂的弹性半空间对SH波的散射问题。构造一个能自动满足含可移动刚性圆柱的弹性半空间自由表面上应力为零的边界条件的散射波,应用可移动圆柱形刚性夹杂的运动条件来确定该散射波。最终则可将求解问题归结为求解一个无穷代数方程组,采用截断有限项的方法对其进行求解。给出了地表位移幅值的数值结果,并讨论了各种参数对它的影响。