Design of recharge and abstraction well systems in heterogeneous aquifers: modeling and experimental studies

Abstract

For centuries, water wells have been used to access groundwater in the subsurface for recharge or production purposes. During the last decades, the use of wells for abstraction, recharge and storage of water in the subsurface is increased for a wide variety of applications. For some water well applications the hydraulic impact needs to be limited to a given depth or portion of the aquifer in order to optimize the entire efficiency of the well system. For such cases, partially-penetrating wells (PPWs) screened in the desired portion of the aquifer instead of fully-penetrating wells (FPWs) or wells that screen a large portion of the aquifer are beneficial. The selection of a proper design for such PPW systems requires thorough understanding of the hydraulic characteristics of the subsurface and the well hydraulics of the PPW itself. In particular, this thesis focusses on the optimization of the well design in various aquifers for the following two well applications: - Minimize the overall hydraulic impact of construction dewatering systems with artificial recharge PPWs. - Minimize the buoyancy impact on the thermal recovery efficiencies of seasonal high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) systems.