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Transient Divergent Flow and Transport in an Infinite Anisotropic Porous Formation
Author(s) -
Mathias Simon A.
Publication year - 2010
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.1745-6584.2009.00652.x
Subject(s) - mechanics , plume , steady state (chemistry) , flow (mathematics) , transient flow , radius , fluid dynamics , transient (computer programming) , linearization , nonlinear system , mathematics , physics , thermodynamics , materials science , chemistry , computer science , computer security , operating system , quantum mechanics
When seeking to predict plume geometry resulting from fluid injection through partially penetrating wells, it is common to assume a steady‐state spherically diverging flow field. In reality, the flow field is transient. The steady‐flow assumption is likely to cause overestimation of injection plume radius since the accommodation of fluid by increases in porosity and fluid density is ignored. In this paper, a transient solution is developed, resulting in a nonlinear ordinary differential equation expressing plume radius as a function of time. It is shown that the problem can be fully described by one type curve. A critical time, t c , is identified at which the percentage error of the steady‐state flow solution compared to the fully dynamic problem is less than 1%. Only for large injection rates and low permeabilities, does t c become greater than 1 h. Nevertheless, an improved approximate solution is obtained by a simple linearization procedure. The critical time, t c for the new approximate solution is 0.3% of that required for the steady‐state flow solution.