HR: 0800h
AN: H41E-0833    [Abstracts]
TI: Screening Models of Aquifer Heterogeneity Using the Flow Dimension
AU: * Walker, D D
EM: ddwalker@uiuc.edu
AF: Illinois State Water Survey, 2204 Griffith Dr., Champaign, IL 61820, United States
AU: Cello, P A
EM: cello@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hydrosystems Laboratory 205 N. Matthews, Urbana, IL 61820, United States
AU: Roberts, R M
EM: rmrober@sandia.gov
AF: Sandia National Laboratories, Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1395, United States
AU: Valocchi, A J
EM: valocchi@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hydrosystems Laboratory 205 N. Matthews, Urbana, IL 61820, United States
AB: Despite advances in test interpretation and modeling, typical groundwater modeling studies only indirectly use the parameters and information inferred from hydraulic tests. In particular, the Generalized Radial Flow approach to test interpretation infers the flow dimension, a parameter describing the geometry of the flow field during a hydraulic test. Noninteger values of the flow dimension often are inferred for tests in highly heterogeneous aquifers, yet subsequent modeling studies typically ignore the flow dimension. Monte Carlo analyses of detailed numerical models of aquifer tests examine the flow dimension for several stochastic models of heterogeneous transmissivity, T(x). These include multivariate lognormal, fractional Brownian motion, a site percolation network, and discrete linear features with lengths distributed as power-law. The behavior of the simulated flow dimensions are compared to the flow dimensions observed for multiple aquifer tests in a fractured dolomite aquifer in the Great Lakes region of North America. The combination of multiple hydraulic tests, observed fracture patterns, and the Monte Carlo results are used to screen models of heterogeneity and their parameters for subsequent groundwater flow modeling.
DE: 1828 Groundwater hydraulics
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1869 Stochastic hydrology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting