R. Hu

Prediction of solute transport in a heterogeneous aquifer utilizing hydraulic conductivity and specific storage tomograms

A sequential procedure of hydraulic tomographical inversion is applied to characterize at high resolution the spatial heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity and specific storage at the field test site Stegemuhle, Germany. The shallow aquifer at this site is examined by five short-term multilevel pumping tests with 30 pumping-observation pairs between two wells. Utilizing travel time diagnostics of the recorded pressure response curves, fast eikonal-based inversion is shown to deliver insight into the sedimentary structures. Thus, the structural information from the generated travel time tomogram is exploited to constrain full calibration of the pressure response curves. Based on lateral extrapolation from the measured inter-well profile, a three-dimensional reconstruction of the aquifer is obtained. It is demonstrated that calibration of spatially variable specific storage in addition to hydraulic conductivity can improve the fitting of the model while the structural features are only slightly changed. At the field site, two tracer tests with uranine and sodium-naphthionate were also performed and their concentrations were monitored for 2 months. The measured tracer breakthrough curves are employed for independent validation of the hydraulic tomographical reconstruction. It is demonstrated that major features of the observed solute transport can be reproduced, and structures relevant for macrodispersive tracer spreading could be resolved. However, for the mildly heterogeneous aquifer, the tracer breakthrough curves can also be approximated by a simplified homogeneous model with higher dispersivity. Therefore, improved validation results that capture specific characteristics of the breakthrough curves would require additional hydraulic measurements.

Bestimmung von hydraulischen Parametern in Lockergesteinen: Ein Vergleich unterschiedlicher Feldmethoden

ZusammenfassungIn dieser Feldstudie werden die laufzeitbasierte tomographische Inversion von Daten aus Kurzzeitpumpversuchen mit der analytischen Auswertung verglichen und die ermittelten hydraulischen Parameter hinsichtlich ihrer räumlichen Auflösung diskutiert und bewertet. Als Datenbasis dienen Messergebnisse aus Kurzzeitpumpversuchen, die in einer tomographischen Messanordnung in einem zwei Meter mächtigen, gut charakterisierten Sand- und Kiesgrundwasserleiter unter Verwendung eines 2“-Brunnens und eines Multikammerbrunnens, beide mit Direct-Push-Technik installiert, durchgeführt wurden. Die analytische Auswertung der Kurzzeitpumpversuche hat gezeigt, dass es nicht möglich ist, Bereiche mit unterschiedlichen hydraulischen Eigenschaften voneinander abzugrenzen. Entsprechend einem Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen von Multilevel-Slug-Tests werden die ermittelten hydraulischen Parameter, trotz einer geringen Pumpdauer von 200 Sekunden und hydraulisch isolierten Pump- und Beobachtungsintervallen, von einem hydraulisch höher durchlässigen Bereich am unteren Rand des Grundwasserleiters dominiert. Die laufzeitbasierte tomographische Inversion ermöglicht hingegen, vertikale und laterale Änderungen der Diffusivitätsverteilung zwischen Pump- und Beobachtungsbrunnen hochaufgelöst zu rekonstruieren.AbstractIn this study the potential of a hydraulic travel-time based inversion approach with analytical solutions for the evaluation of short term pumping tests is assessed. The data base comprises measurements from short-term pumping tests performed in a sand and gravel aquifer using a tomographic measurement array. The evaluation, which is based on an analytical solution, has shown that it is not possible to delimit aquifer zones with different hydraulic properties. The comparison with multi-level slug tests has revealed that the pumping test results are dominated by a zone with a relatively high hydraulic conductivity located close to the bottom of the aquifer. This finding is surprising due to the short pumping time of 200 seconds and due to the hydraulically isolated pumping and observation intervals. The travel-time based inversion, however, allows the reconstruction of vertical and lateral changes in hydraulic diffusivity, between pumping and observation wells, with a high resolution.

An Aquifer Analogue Study of High Resolution Aquifer Characterization Based on Hydraulic Tomography

Hydraulic tomography is an efficient method for characterizing the subsurface heterogeneity of hydraulic parameters. In this paper the authors introduce a hydraulic tomographic travel time based inversion procedure showing the advantageous of the inversion of data subsets. The results demonstrate that the proposed inversion scheme is competent for the reconstruction of individual architectural elements as well as their hydraulic properties with a higher resolution in contrast to conventional hydraulic and geological investigation methods.