An understanding of the spatial and hydraulic properties of fast preferential flow pathways in the subsurface is necessary in applications ranging from contaminant fate and transport modeling to design of energy extraction systems. One method for the characterization of fracture properties over interwellbore scales is Multiperiod Oscillatory Hydraulic (MOH) testing, in which the aquifer response to oscillatory pressure stimulations is observed. MOH tests were conducted on isolated intervals of wells in siliciclastic and carbonate aquifers in southern Wisconsin. The goal was to characterize the spatial properties of discrete fractures over interwellbore scales. MOH tests were conducted on two discrete fractured intervals intersecting two boreholes at one field site, and a nest of three piezometers at another field site. Fracture diffusivity estimates were obtained using analytical solutions that relate diffusivity to observed phase lag and amplitude decay. In addition, MOH tests were used to investigate the spatial extent of flow using different conceptual models of fracture geometry. Results indicated that fracture geometry at both field sites can be approximated by permeable two-dimensional fracture planes, oriented near-horizontally at one site, and near-vertically at the other. The technique used on MOH field data to characterize fracture geometry shows promise in revealing fracture network characteristics important to groundwater flow and transport.
Please cite this article as: Cardiff, M., Sayler, C., Str ategies for avoiding er r or s and ambiguities in the analysis of oscillator y pumping tests, Journal of Hydrology (2016), doi: http://dx. AbstractOscillatory pumping tests have recently seen a resurgence in interest as a strategy for aquifer characterization. In a cross-well pumping test, measured responses to oscillatory pumping tests consist of the amplitude and phase delay of pressure changes at an observation well. This information can be used to obtain estimates of effective aquifer parameters (conductivity and storage coefficients), by fitting field data with an analytical model through parameter estimation. Alternately, multiple pumping tests can be fit simultaneously through tomographic analyses. However, in both cases, analysis of obtained test results may be ambiguous if "phase wrapping" occurs, i.e. if signals are delayed by more than one period. In this work, we demonstrate scenarios under which phase wrapping can make analysis of oscillatory testing difficult, and present guidelines for avoiding ambiguity in oscillatory testing results.
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