Effects of measurement error on horizontal hydraulic gradient estimates.

During the design of a natural gradient tracer experiment, it was noticed that the hydraulic gradient was too small to measure reliably on an approximately 500-m(2) site. Additional wells were installed to increase the monitored area to 26,500 m(2), and wells were instrumented with pressure transducers. The resulting monitoring system was capable of measuring heads with a precision of +/-1.

High-resolution slug testing.

The hydraulic conductivity (K) variation has important ramifications for ground water flow and the transport of contaminants in ground water. The delineation of the nature of that variation can be critical to complete characterization of a site and the planning of effective and efficient remedial measures. Site-specific features (such as high-conductivity zones) need to be quantified.

Application of a nonlinear slug test model.

Knowledge of the hydraulic conductivity distribution is of utmost importance in understanding the dynamics of an aquifer and in planning the consequences of any action taken upon that aquifer. Slug tests have been used extensively to measure hydraulic conductivity in the last 50 years since Hvorslev's (1951) work. A general nonlinear model based on the Navier-Stokes equation, nonlinear frictional loss, non-Darcian flow, acceleration effects, radius changes in the wellbore, and a Hvorslev model for the aquifer has been implemented in this work.