Simultaneous Solving of Three-Dimensional Gravity Anomalies Caused by Pumping Tests in Unconfined Aquifers

The contribution of geophysical techniques to groundwater characterization has largely evolved during the last two decades. As gravity is a geophysical technique sensitive to underground mass variations and due to the improved resolution of modern gravity meters, it can provide information on changes in the phreatic level caused by water being pumped from unconfined aquifers. Previous studies simulated the hydraulic head and the gravimetric anomaly using independent codes. The mass change associated to the pumping well-simulated drawdown had to be externally transferred to the gravity code used to simulate the gravimetrical anomaly, which has severe drawbacks. This article describes how to solve the forward coupled hydro-gravity problem using a unique finite-element code. To illustrate it, it is shown the case of a two-dimensional hydraulic model coupled to its three-dimensional gravity anomaly and also a more complex case where both related domains are three-dimensional. Both are compared against analytical solutions and discussed. The methodology is very flexible, general and amenable to extensions like including heterogeneous domains or coupling with the inverse problem in the same loop.     

利用滨海地下水系统对双频潮汐的响应识别含水层压力传导系数

含水层的压力传导系数是地下水溶质运移及扩散的重要参数,通常压力传导系数由抽水试验确定,即通过抽水给地下水系统一个扰动,然后监测地下水水位的响应,进而计算压力传导系数.对滨海地区含水层来说,潮汐波动就是天然的抽(注)水试验.潮汐由不同频率的分潮构成,前两项主频潮汐基本可代表潮汐主要特征.利用地下水水位对潮汐的响应,识别含...     

Evaluation of unconfined aquifer parameters from flow to partially penetrating wells in Tailan River basin, China

Effective evaluation, management and abstraction of groundwater resources of any aquifer require accurate and reliable estimates of its hydraulic parameters. This study, therefore, looks at the determination of hydraulic parameters of an unconfined aquifer using both analytical and numerical approaches. A long-duration pumping test data obtained from an unconfined aquifer system within the Tailan River basin in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the northwest of China is used, in this study, to investigate the best method for estimating the parameters of the aquifer. The pumping test was conducted by pumping from a radial collector well and measuring the response in nine observation wells; all the wells used in the test were partially penetrating. Using two well-known tools, namely AquiferTest and MODFLOW, as an aid for the analytical and numerical approaches, respectively, the parameters of the aquifer were determined and their outputs compared. The estimated horizontal hydraulic conductivity, vertical hydraulic conductivity, and specific yield for the analytical approach are 38.1–50.30 m/day, 3.02–9.05 m/day and 0.204–0.339, respectively, while the corresponding numerical estimates are 20.50–35.24 m/day, 0.10–3.40 m/day, and 0.27–0.31, respectively. Comparing the two, the numerical estimates were found to be more representative of the aquifer in the study area since it simulated the groundwater flow conditions of the pumping test in the aquifer system better than the analytical solution.     

Automatic estimation of aquifer parameters using long-term water supply pumping and injection records

Analyses are presented of long-term hydrographs perturbed by variable pumping/injection events in a confined aquifer at a municipal water-supply well field in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada). Such records are typically not considered for aquifer test analysis. Here, the water-level variations are fingerprinted to pumping/injection rate changes using the Theis model implemented in the WELLS code coupled with PEST. Analyses of these records yield a set of transmissivity (T) and storativity (S) estimates between each monitoring and production borehole. These individual estimates are found to poorly predict water-level variations at nearby monitoring boreholes not used in the calibration effort. On the other hand, the geometric means of the individual T and S estimates are similar to those obtained from previous pumping tests conducted at the same site and adequately predict water-level variations in other boreholes. The analyses reveal that long-term municipal water-level records are amenable to analyses using a simple analytical solution to estimate aquifer parameters. However, uniform parameters estimated with analytical solutions should be considered as first rough estimates. More accurate hydraulic parameters should be obtained by calibrating a three-dimensional numerical model that rigorously captures the complexities of the site with these data.     

Impact of model complexity and multi-scale data integration on the estimation of hydrogeological parameters in a dual-porosity aquifer

This study investigates the impact of model complexity and multi-scale prior hydrogeological data on the interpretation of pumping test data in a dual-porosity aquifer (the Chalk aquifer in England, UK). In order to characterize the hydrogeological properties, different approaches ranging from a traditional analytical solution (Theis approach) to more sophisticated numerical models with automatically calibrated input parameters are applied. Comparisons of results from the different approaches show that neither traditional analytical solutions nor a numerical model assuming a homogenous and isotropic aquifer can adequately explain the observed drawdowns. A better reproduction of the observed drawdowns in all seven monitoring locations is instead achieved when medium and local-scale prior information about the vertical hydraulic conductivity (K) distribution is used to constrain the model calibration process. In particular, the integration of medium-scale vertical K variations based on flowmeter measurements lead to an improvement in the goodness-of-fit of the simulated drawdowns of about 30%. Further improvements (up to 70%) were observed when a simple upscaling approach was used to integrate small-scale K data to constrain the automatic calibration process of the numerical model. Although the analysis focuses on a specific case study, these results provide insights about the representativeness of the estimates of hydrogeological properties based on different interpretations of pumping test data, and promote the integration of multi-scale data for the characterization of heterogeneous aquifers in complex hydrogeological settings.     

江汉平原典型含水层水文地质参数反演

含水层参数对于定性分析区域地下水资源评价、数值模拟及预报、开发利用与保护及科学管理具有重要意义,而江汉平原水文地质参数求解的研究却相对较少.2015年江汉平原1:50 000水文地质调查项目完成杨林尾图幅与陆溪口图幅,选择杨林尾图幅和陆溪口图幅中的4个代表性钻孔,分别做了3组抽水试验和一组压水试验.对抽水数据使用Dupuit公式法结合抽水稳定阶段数据求解含水层参数,同时利用Aquifer Test软件中Theis标准曲线法、直线图解法对抽水试验中非稳定条件下抽水数据对含水层参数求解,得到孔隙水含水层渗透系数及弹性给水度;利用压水试验工程规范求解基岩裂隙含水层的渗透系数.探讨了利用非稳定抽水试验条件下求解含水层参数方法的可行性及该方法的优势.计算结果表明:杨林尾镇浅层(20.2~64.55 m)含水层渗透系数为0.075 m/d,弹性给水度为5.8×10-2;深层(138~160 m)含水层渗透系数为9.89 m/d,弹性给水度为2.3×10-5;陆溪口镇浅层(19.4~36.4 m)含水层渗透系数1.26 m/d,弹性给水度为1.1×10-1;基岩渗透系数为0.012 m/d.通过结果对比分析发现对于单孔非稳定抽水试验,对前期水位降深数据筛选分析,同样可以利用非稳定井流理论反演含水层参数,结果比较可靠.      

A practical approach for the interpretation of flowing well tests

Flowing well test is one of the tools employed to identify transmissivity and storage coefficient of a confined aquifer where the potentiometric surface is located above the ground surface, so that the groundwater flows naturally from the well without pumping. During a flowing well test, constant hydraulic head is preserved at the well while the discharge from the well decreases with time and the temporal variation of discharge provides significant information about aquifer characteristics. In this study, a simple and straightforward approach is presented as an alternative to a number of graphical or error minimization-based techniques available in the literature for analyzing data from flowing well tests. The proposed method employs a polynomial regression equation to establish a link between observed discharge and the theoretical dimensionless discharge that is introduced in the analytical solution, so as to retrieve the aquifer parameters. The method is tested with a vast number of synthetically generated data sets as well as a real data set reported in the literature. Besides its simplicity, the present method is seen to produce highly accurate and reliable estimations.     

基于广义径向流模型的非均质孔隙含水层井流试验分析

Theis模型、Dupuit模型等经典井流模型分析非均质含水层井流试验数据有一定的局限性,获取的参数不适合表征非均质含水层特性。而GRF模型可以获取含水层流动特性的数据。相比于Theis模型、Dupuit模型,GRF模型更能表征非均质含水层特性。以黄石东湖新村棋盘洲长江大桥的抽水试验数据为例,采用Theis模型和GRF模型计算含水层渗透系数,结合实际水文地质条件,对比分析不同方法计算的水文地质参数,并计算含水层水流维数和表观压力传导系数（K_f /S_sf）。结果表明:研究区含水层为细砂夹条带状黏土透镜体的非均质含水层,采用GRF模型计算结果更符合实际情况,渗透系数为 4.09×10?3cm/s;含水层水流维数为1.61,地下水为双线性流动状态,含水层对抽水试验的响应主要受黏土条带控制;观测井和抽水主井的K_f /S_sf呈非线性相关,进一步验证了含水层的非均质性。在非均质孔隙含水层中,应用多孔联合非稳定GRF井流试验方法不仅能确定水文地质参数,并且能丰富对含水层特性的认知。     

Modeling approaches and strategies for data-scarce aquifers: example of the Dar es Salaam aquifer in Tanzania

Management of groundwater resources can be improved by using groundwater models to perform risk analyses and to improve development strategies, but a lack of extensive basic data often limits the implementation of sophisticated models. Dar es Salaam in Tanzania is an example of a city where increasing groundwater use in a Pleistocene aquifer is causing groundwater-related problems such as saline intrusion along the coastline, lowering of water-table levels, and contamination of pumping wells. The lack of a water-level monitoring network introduces a problem for basic data collection and model calibration and validation. As a replacement, local water-supply wells were used for measuring groundwater depth, and well-top heights were estimated from a regional digital elevation model to recalculate water depths to hydraulic heads. These were used to draw a regional piezometric map. Hydraulic parameters were estimated from short-time pumping tests in the local wells, but variation in hydraulic conductivity was attributed to uncertainty in well characteristics (information often unavailable) and not to aquifer heterogeneity. A MODFLOW model was calibrated with a homogeneous hydraulic conductivity field and a sensitivity analysis between the conductivity and aquifer recharge showed that average annual recharge will likely be in the range 80–100 mm/year.     

In-well time-of-travel approach to evaluate optimal purge duration during low-flow sampling of monitoring wells

A common assumption with groundwater sampling is that low (<0.5 L/min) pumping rates during well purging and sampling captures primarily lateral flow from the formation through the well-screened interval at a depth coincident with the pump intake. However, if the intake is adjacent to a low hydraulic conductivity part of the screened formation, this scenario will induce vertical groundwater flow to the pump intake from parts of the screened interval with high hydraulic conductivity. Because less formation water will initially be captured during pumping, a substantial volume of water already in the well (preexisting screen water or screen storage) will be captured during this initial time until inflow from the high hydraulic conductivity part of the screened formation can travel vertically in the well to the pump intake. Therefore, the length of the time needed for adequate purging prior to sample collection (called optimal purge duration) is controlled by the in-well, vertical travel times. A preliminary, simple analytical model was used to provide information on the relation between purge duration and capture of formation water for different gross levels of heterogeneity (contrast between low and high hydraulic conductivity layers). The model was then used to compare these time–volume relations to purge data (pumping rates and drawdown) collected at several representative monitoring wells from multiple sites. Results showed that computation of time-dependent capture of formation water (as opposed to capture of preexisting screen water), which were based on vertical travel times in the well, compares favorably with the time required to achieve field parameter stabilization. If field parameter stabilization is an indicator of arrival time of formation water, which has been postulated, then in-well, vertical flow may be an important factor at wells where low-flow sampling is the sample method of choice.     

Estimation of hydraulic characteristics from electrical resistivity data in coastal aquifers of southern India

The applicability of geophysical techniques has been examined for evaluating aquifer properties like transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity of coastal aquifers, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. The pumping test data of 10 wells are interpreted by using forward modelling to obtain the aquifer characteristics in the study area. The available vertical electrical soundings (VES) data in the vicinity of the sites of pumping test have been interpreted; and true resistivity and thickness are determined at each site in the study area. Empirical relationships are established for estimating the hydraulic parameters from the electrical data.     

Estimating aquifer hydraulic properties using sinusoidal pumping at the Savannah River site,South Carolina,USA

A framework for estimating aquifer hydraulic properties using sinusoidal pumping is presented that (1) derives analytical solutions for confined, leaky, and partially penetrating conditions; (2) compares the analytical solutions with a finite element model; (3) establishes a field protocol for conducting sinusoidal aquifer tests; and (4) estimates aquifer parameters using the analytical solutions. The procedure is demonstrated in one surficial and two confined aquifers containing potentially contaminated water in coastal plain sediments at the Savannah River site, a federal nuclear facility. The analytical solutions compare favorably with finite-element solutions, except immediately adjacent to the pumping well where the assumption of zero borehole radius is not valid. Estimated aquifer properties are consistent with previous studies for the two confined aquifers, but are inconsistent for the surficial aquifer; conventional tests yielded estimates of the specific yield—consistent with an unconfined response—while the shorter-duration sinusoidal perturbations yielded estimates of the storativity—consistent with a confined, elastic response. The approach minimizes investigation-derived wastes, a significant concern where contaminated fluids must be disposed of in an environmentally acceptable manner. An additional advantage is the ability to introduce a signal different from background perturbations, thus easing detection.     

基于解析法和数值法的非稳定流抽水试验参数反演

含水层的水文地质参数是进行地下水资源计算、地下水污染防控等所必需的基础数据,结合数值模拟技术进行含水层参数反演很有必要.按照1:5万水文地质调查规范在江汉平原仙桃市杨林尾镇复兴水厂不同含水层位开展抽水试验,包括深层含水层单孔抽水试验以及浅层含水层中群孔(2孔)抽水试验.对于单孔抽水试验,应用第1类越流系统井流理论进行参数反演;对于群孔抽水试验,推导了特定综合井函数,并利用特定标准曲线匹配法和直线图解法求解了含水层参数.随后利用FEFLOW软件建立了相应数值模型,拟合了含水层参数.结果表明:浅层含水层的渗透系数变化范围为21.66~54.00 m/d,贮水率变化范围为1.28×10-5~8.00×10-4 m-1;深层含水层渗透系数变化范围为1.27~7.00 m/d,贮水率变化范围为3.90×10-6~5.00×10-6 m-1.对于深层承压含水层而言,越流补给量较大.采用数值模拟方法结合抽水试验数据求参,综合考虑了含水层结构,拟合效果好,所得结果更加可靠.      

A hydrogeophysical model of the relationship between geoelectric and hydraulic parameters of anisotropic aquifers

An electrical resistivity method has been used to determine aquifer parameters in the Ganga-Yamuna interfluve in northern India. An existing relationship between the geoelectrical and hydraulic parameters has been modified for the case of an anisotropic aquifer. The hydrogeological framework in the upper part of the Ganga-Yamuna interfluve is evaluated by using existing relationships between hydraulic parameters and geoelectrical parameters for alluvial aquifers. On the basis of aquifer geometry, the area has been divided into two hydraulic units: the western Yamuna flood plain and the Ganga flood plain towards the east. The resistivity data collected in parts of the study area are first interpreted in terms of true resistivity and thicknesses of subsurface layers. The electrical parameters (resistivity and thicknesses) are subsequently correlated with the available pumping test data. Distinct correlations between transmissivity and modified transverse resistance are obtained for the two hydraulic units. A four-parameter model consisting of hydraulic conductivity, modified longitudinal resistivity, modified transverse resistance and hydraulic anisotropy is presented for the anisotropic aquifer underlain by conductive fine grained sediments. The model has been validated at a number of locations, where aquifer parameters are known from pumping test data.     

水平井的水力特征及其解析解的适用条件

利用自制的水平井砂槽模型, 进行了一系列不同流量条件下的水平井抽水试验, 结果表明: (1)在不同出流条件下, 水平井井管中可以同时出现层流-粗糙紊流多种不同流态; (2) 水平井出流条件下, 井管中的水头损失既不能忽略, 也不服从线性变化规律.它与井管中的水流流态有关.用“等水头井壁”或“等强度线汇”来刻画水平井井壁边界条件是不全面的.根据“等强度线汇”理论得到的解析解与试验结果对比发现, 本试验条件下解析解的近似适用条件是: 水平井管中的水流全部为层流(Re < 2 320)或者层流和层流-光滑紊流过渡区(Re < 4 000)同时并存的情况.当水平井管中出现光滑紊流区(Re> 4 000), 即同时有层流、层流-光滑紊流过渡态和光滑紊流或更多种流态时, 解析解已不再适用, 此时必须用新的层流-管流耦合模型来求解.      

抽水组数和先验信息对估算三维非均质含水层渗透系数的影响

水力层析抽水实验可以高精度刻画非均质含水层渗透系数分布,但野外成本高,需要对抽水试验进行优化.通过构建三维非均质含水层砂箱,开展水力层析抽水实验,探讨不同抽水组数和先验信息对刻画渗透系数的影响.分别利用不同抽水组数和融入42个井段岩心渗透系数作为先验信息,对渗透系数场进行估算,并用以预测独立抽水实验过程,对比估算结果优...     

抽水试验和长观水位联合模拟确定含水层参数

为了更加准确地确定含水层参数,提出了利用地下水流数值模拟软件Modflow耦合大型抽水试验和长观孔水位两个模型的方法,对含水层参数进行了识别与校验。该方法求得的含水层参数避免了只利用抽水试验模型校验所带来的不确定性,同时利用抽水实验数据进行抽水与恢复的全过程曲线拟合,水位降深模拟相对误差小于6%,提高了含水层参数的准确性。     

Estimating aquifer thickness using multiple pumping tests

A method to estimate aquifer thickness and hydraulic conductivity has been developed, consisting of multiple pumping tests. The method requires short-duration pumping cycles on an unconfined aquifer with significant seasonal water-table fluctuations. The interpretation of several pumping tests at a site in India under various initial conditions provides information on the change in hydrodynamic parameters in relation to the initial water-table level. The transmissivity linearly decreases compared with the initial water level, suggesting a homogeneous distribution of hydraulic conductivity with depth. The hydraulic conductivity is estimated from the slope of this linear relationship. The extrapolation of the relationship between transmissivity and water level provides an estimate of the aquifer thickness that is in good agreement with geophysical investigations. The hydraulically active part of the aquifer is located in both the shallow weathered and the underlying densely fractured zones of the crystalline basement. However, no significant relationship is found between the aquifer storage coefficient and initial water level. This new method contributes to filling the methodological gap between single pumping tests and hydraulic tomography, in providing information on the variation of the global transmissivity according to depth. It can be applied to any unconfined aquifer experiencing large seasonal water-table fluctuations and short pumping cycles.     

Groundwater flow and capture zone analysis of the Central Passaic River Basin, New Jersey

Delineating capture zones of pumping wells is an important part of safe drinking water and well protection programs. Capture zones or contributing areas of a groundwater extraction well are the parts of the aquifer recharge areas from which the wells draw their water. Their extent and location depend on the hydrogeologic conditions such as groundwater recharge, pumping scenario and the aquifer properties such as hydraulic conductivity, porosity, heterogeneity of the medium and hydraulic gradient. Different methods of delineation can be used depending on the complexity of the hydrogeologic conditions. In this study, a 3-dimensional transient numerical MODFLOW model was developed for the Central Passaic River Basin (CPRB), and used with a MODPATH particle tracking code to determine 3-dimensional transient capture zones. Analytically calculated capture zones from previous studies at the site were compared with the new numerically simulated capture zones. The study results revealed that the analytical solution was more conservative, estimating larger capture zones than the numerical models. Of all the parameters that can impact the size, shape and location of a capture zone, the hydraulic conductivity is one of the most critical. Capture zones tend to be smaller in lower hydraulic conductivity areas.