A Physically Based Approach for Estimating Hydraulic Conductivity from HPT Pressure and Flowrate

Ground Water. 2021 Mar;59(2):266-272. doi: 10.1111/gwat.13039. Epub 2020 Sep 7.

Abstract

The hydraulic profiling tool (HPT) is widely used to generate profiles of relative permeability vs. depth. In this work, prior numerical modeling results are used to develop a relationship between probe advance rate V (cm/s), probe diameter D (cm), water injection rate Q (mL/min), corrected pressure Pc (psi), and hydraulic conductivity K (feet/d) [Formula: see text] where E is an empirically derived hydraulic efficiency factor. The relationship is validated by 23 HPT profiles that, after averaging K vertically, were similar to slug test results in adjoining monitoring wells. The best fit value of E for these profiles was 2.02. This equation provides a physically based approach for generating hydraulic conductivity profiles with HPT tooling.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Electric Conductivity
  • Groundwater*
  • Water
  • Water Movements*
  • Water Wells

Substances

  • Water