Settlements around pumping wells: Analysis of influential factors and a simple calculation procedure

Groundwater; Porous media; Pumping settlement; Soil displacements; Specific storage coefficient; Young's modulus; Elastic moduli; Porous materials; Soils; Well pumps; Boundary constraints; Calculation procedure; Elastic porous media; Influential factors; Mechanical parameters; Mechanical response; Soil displacement; Pumps; Young modulus

Abstract :

[en] Estimated and measured settlements caused by pumping rarely agree. Several reasons could explain this mismatch, including the influence of layering, the mechanical parameters used in the predictions, or the relationship between settlements and drawdown. We analyze the influence of the above issues by investigating the mechanical response of pumped elastic porous media under different conditions. A radially symmetric conceptual model is considered and several hydro-mechanical simulations are performed varying the boundary conditions, the size of the modeled domain and the presence or not of an overlying layer. The simplicity of the considered problem allows us to compare our results with existing analytical solutions, to identify the role of each variable on pumping settlements and to generalize the results. The most relevant results are as follows: (1) settlements are proportional to drawdown only outside a circle of radius equal to 0.7 times the thickness of the pumped porous medium; inside, they are virtually constant, which leads to two simple procedures for computing pumping settlements. (2) Poorly conductive layers located above (or below) a pumped porous medium (with higher hydraulic conductivity) reduce and smooth settlements. (3) Boundary constraints affect the local specific storage coefficient and the displacements occurred. (4) The specific storage coefficient evaluated by interpreting pumping tests with the Cooper and Jacob method (1946) leads to overestimation of the actual Young's Modulus of the soil. The main conclusion is that settlements are less differential than expected near pumping wells. Still, they must always be evaluated acknowledging the nature of layering, the boundary constraints and carefully selecting the mechanical parameters of the soil. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Disciplines :

Geological, petroleum & mining engineering

Author, co-author :

Pujades, Estanislao ; Université de Liège - ULg

De Simone, S.; GHS, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain, GHS, Dept Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC-BarcelonaTech, Barcelona, Spain

Carrera, J.; GHS, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

Vázquez-Suñé, E.; GHS, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

Jurado, A.; University of Liege, Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Aquapole, Departement ArGEnCo, Engineering Faculty, B52, Liege, 4000, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Settlements around pumping wells: Analysis of influential factors and a simple calculation procedure

Publication date :

2017

Journal title :

Journal of Hydrology

ISSN :

0022-1694

eISSN :

1879-2707

Publisher :

Elsevier, Netherlands

Volume :

548

Pages :

225-236

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 10 August 2020

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