Reducing Groundwater Pumping Cost Using Alternate Pulsed Pumping

Abstract

This paper deals with water pumping cost minimization, in a confined infinite aquifer, proposing an alternate pulsed pumping schedule. The transient flow analysis is conducted for two wells with equal pumping rates. Specifically, two pumping schedules are analytically compared. In the first case, well users pump simultaneously, and in the second one they cooperate so that they pump alternately. This paper proves that the proposed alternate pumping schedule works as a stabilizer, reducing the high hydraulic drawdowns values, regardless of the aquifer characteristics. Moreover, pumping alternately is better in terms of pumping cost, compared to simultaneous pumping, though benefit become negligible as distance between wells becomes large. Two simplified equations are proposed, one to find the difference of the hydraulic drawdowns between the two pumping schedules and the other one to find the economic benefit of each well from cooperation. The equations are finally applied to a number of cases and their results are compared to the results obtained from an algorithm created to calculate the hydraulic drawdowns and the pumping cost, using the Theis equation. The results can be very useful in irrigation scheduling, as they can be applied to systems of well users/farmers, to reduce pumping cost.

Using Alternate Pumping and Cooperative Game Theory to Reduce Sea Water Intrusion

“…From the tests conducted (Table 7), low hk values (high interference between the wells), high Q in values (freshwater inflow) and high D m values (diffusion) seem to be correlated with high benefit percentages. In terms of hk , the results are in accordance with previous alternate pumping theoretical tests (Nagkoulis 2021). Except from these parameters, the distance between wells has also been tested.…”

“…In this article, we expand the analysis performed in a previous article (Nagkoulis 2021) to test alternate pumping's effect on pumping cost from systems of wells. In this paper we conduct numerical experiments to find out if alternative pumping is also beneficial in terms of sea water intrusion reduction.…”

“…For example, it is more common for well users to pump during the day, instead of pumping during the night. In confined aquifers it has been proved using Theis equations (Theis 1935) that pumping alternately can reduce the maximum hydraulic drawdowns as well as the pumping cost (Nagkoulis 2021). In this article, two pumping phases, P 1 and P 2 , are considered.…”

“…Pauw et al (2016) have also dealt with SEAWAT and cyclic pumping, comparing numerical and analytical approaches, however, not examining a system of wells and their interactions. In a recent work (Nagkoulis 2021) it has been proved analytically that application of alternate pumping from a system of wells in a confined aquifer, can reduce the hydraulic drawdowns at the location of the wells.…”

“…In previous works of the authors (Nagkoulis 2021; Nagkoulis and Katsifarakis 2022), alternate pumping has been used to reduce pumping cost and hydraulic drawdowns. In this work, we are interested in reducing sea water intrusion.…”