Premium
Prediction of Flow and Hydraulic Head Fields for Vertical Circulation Wells
Author(s) -
Philip Ross D.,
Walter Gary R.
Publication year - 1992
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/j.1745-6584.1992.tb01562.x
Subject(s) - aquifer , hydraulic head , sink (geography) , superposition principle , geology , head (geology) , environmental science , mechanics , groundwater , petroleum engineering , geotechnical engineering , geomorphology , physics , cartography , quantum mechanics , geography
A vertical circulation well is a well completed in two intervals with extraction induced in one interval and injection induced in the other, generating a circulating flow field near the well. A vertical circulation well may be used to remediate contaminated ground water by air stripping the extracted water and then reinjecting the clean water; by introducing oxygen and/or nutrients to the extracted water before reinjecting it, thereby stimulating the natural bioremediation of the water; or by injecting appropriate chemicals or microbes, effecting remediation of the circulated water. This paper summarizes an analytical technique for predicting the steady‐state hydraulic head and flow fields caused by the operation of multiple vertical circulation wells in a confined aquifer with a regional gradient. The method begins with the hydraulic head solution for a point sink in an infinite aquifer. The point sink is then integrated to derive the solution for a line sink. Linear superposition is applied to obtain the hydraulic head resulting from multiple line sinks and sources in a homogeneous confined aquifer. This solution is then differentiated to obtain the hydraulic head gradient and three‐dimensional velocity field. The velocity field is numerically integrated by an adaptive Runge‐Kutta scheme to obtain the pathlines of three‐dimensional flow.