Premium
Aquifer Characterization and Uncertainty in Multi‐Frequency Oscillatory Flow Tests: Approach and Insights
Author(s) -
Patterson Jeremy R.,
Cardiff Michael
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/gwat.13134
Subject(s) - aquifer , hydrogeology , flow (mathematics) , amplitude , aquifer properties , soil science , signal (programming language) , biological system , geology , environmental science , computer science , geotechnical engineering , mechanics , groundwater , physics , optics , groundwater recharge , programming language , biology
Characterizing aquifer properties and their associated uncertainty remains a fundamental challenge in hydrogeology. Recent studies demonstrate the use of oscillatory flow interference testing to characterize effective aquifer flow properties. These characterization efforts relate the relative amplitude and phase of an observation signal with a single frequency component to aquifer diffusivity and transmissivity. Here, we present a generalized workflow that relates extracted Fourier coefficients for observation signals with single and multiple frequency components to aquifer flow properties and their associated uncertainty. Through synthetic analytical modeling we show that multi‐frequency oscillatory flow interference testing adds information that improves inversion performance and decreases parameter uncertainty. We show increased observation signal length, sampling frequency, and pressure sensor accuracy all produce decreased parameter uncertainty. This work represents the first attempt we are aware of to quantify effective aquifer parameters and their associated uncertainty using multi‐frequency oscillatory flow interference testing.