Observed Drawdown Pattern Around a Well Partially Penetrating a Vertically Extensive Water-Table Aquifer

In order to understand the flow pattern around a pumping well partially penetrating a vertically extensive aquifer, a specially designed pumping test was carried out in Pakistan. In this paper salient features of the test have been described. The spatial distributions of drawdown have been shown graphically. Some of the preliminary conclusions made from the drawdown pattern include:

• • The distance beyond which the flow is likely to be horizontal increases with decrease in the degree of aquifer penetration.
• • In equidistant observation wells open at different depths, (1) the drawdowns tend to merge at larger times, provided the observation point is located within the screened section of the aquifer; (2) the less the depth of penetration is, the earlier the drawdowns start merging; and (3) the initial rate of drawdown near the aquifer top is slow but catches up with time to exceed those at deeper points.

     

Analysis of Transient Flow to an Extended Fully Penetrating Well at Constant-Head Pumping

Vertical wells with radial extension at the well bottom can improve the rate of water production. No study has yet investigated the effects of the transient state and anisotropy in directional hydraulic conductivities on the wellbore flux rate for this type of well. This study derives a semianalytical transient drawdown solution for constant-head pumping at a fully penetrating well radially extended at the bottom of a confined, anisotropic aquifer by applying Laplace transform and separation of variables as well as conducting a Fourier analysis. The results of this new solution indicate that transient and steady-state wellbore flux rates can be increased by a factor of two for greater radial extension of the well. Compared with an isotropic aquifer (a ratio of vertical and horizontal hydraulic conductivities equal to one), an anisotropic aquifer with the ratio less than one may produce a higher transient wellbore flux rate and lower steady-state wellbore flux rate. Moreover, the time required to achieve the steady-state wellbore flux rate can be substantially affected by anisotropy of the aquifer.     

General Steady-State Shape Factor for a Partially Penetrating Well

We present the closed form of a general steady-state shape factor for a partially penetrating well in a uniform anisotropic aquifer. Our simple analytical expression for the shape factor has a uniform representation for full range of parameters and meets or exceeds the accuracy of previous results obtained through semiempirical methods (e.g., Bouwer and Rice [1976] equations). This general shape factor pertains to the flow of fluids (water or air) in subsurface formations when the upper formation boundary has constant potential and the lower boundary is impermeable. The results of our investigation are directly applicable to analyses of (1) slug tests with falling or rising head and (2) injection/extraction tests with constant head, essential techniques for the characterization of hydraulic conductivity of aquifers, streambeds, or lakebeds as well as the design of aquifer and soil remediation systems.     

Interpretation of a Pumping Test with Interference from a Neighboring Well

In confined aquifers, the influence of neighboring active wells is often neglected when interpreting a pumping test. This can, however, lead to an erroneous interpretation of the pumping test data. This paper presents simple methods to evaluate the transmissivity (T) and storativity (S) of a confined aquifer under Theis conditions, when an interfering well starts pumping in the neighborhood of the tested well before the beginning of the test. These new methods yield better estimates of the T and especially S values than when the interfering well influence is neglected. They also permit to distinguish between interfering wells and other deviations from the Cooper‐Jacob straight line, such as impermeable boundaries. The new methods were then applied on data obtained from a numerical model. The new methods require knowing the pumping rate of the interfering well and the time elapsed since the pumping started in each well, but contrary to previous methods, they do not require the aquifer natural level at the beginning of the test, which is often unknown if the interfering well has started pumping before the tested well.