Groundwater vulnerability risk assessment in south Darb El Arbaein, south Western Desert

Groundwater resources in the south Darb El Arbaein are currently threatened by agricultural impact and rock water interaction associated with over exploitation. Planning of Nubian sandstone aquifer is required, especially in this new invest area. It is implemented by GIS to establish vulnerability areas and to evaluate protocol plans for hydrogeological parameters and soil. The TDS concentration ranged from 750 to 1350 ppm, confirms the impact of non-point source (agricultural activity). It is because recharging Nile water has TDS concentration of 100–300 ppm. Aquifer vulnerability delineation areas by lithogenic and anthropogenic sources have been recently highlighted for water resources systems planning and management. The correlation among hydrogeological, geological, and hydrogeochemical characteristics was discussed and achieved. Ten stratified beds were matched by GIS with specified average weights to them according to their relative importance for groundwater vulnerability. The chosen layers are TDS, aquitard thickness, water depth, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity, slope, total hardness (TH), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), discharge rate (Q), and screen length. The groundwater impact distribution reflect five categories ranged from no to excellent aquifer potential levels. Class I (very low vulnerability) was in the northern part and contains 11.1% (16.02 km2) of the area. While very high vulnerability (class V) was in southeast, east, it represents 10.4% (14.96 km2). The preferred invested area was northeast rather than other areas; otherwise, the groundwater degradation enhanced. The vegetation/ or barren lands were established by band 4/band 3, band 3/band 4 ratios and composite RGB 7, 4, and 1 satellite images.

Manganese (Mn) Concentrations and the Mn-Fe Relationship in Shallow Groundwater: Implications for Groundwater Monitoring

Manganese (Mn) concentrations in approximately 32,000 groundwater analyses from more than 4800 monitoring wells in northern Germany were evaluated. This region was considered well suited to study Mn in shallow groundwater in unconsolidated sediments. Spearman rank correlation was used to correlate between redox-sensitive parameters and the Mann–Kendall test for an evaluation of temporal trends. Manganese concentrations varied over two orders of magnitude and more than 40% of the wells had concentrations above 0.3 mg/L. Median Mn concentrations in the major hydrogeological units, the Geesten, tidal wetlands, and fluviatile lowlands were 0.12 mg/L, 0.46 mg/L, and 0.27 mg/L, respectively. Separating the data by land use, the median concentrations were 0.20 mg/L for arable land, 0.15 mg/L for forests, and 0.24 for grassland. Calculated background concentrations of Mn varied from <0.25 mg/L to 4.79 mg/L. A new parameter, ∆Mn-Fe, defined as the concentration difference between Mn and Fe in mg/L together with nitrate concentrations exceeding 50 mg/L was used to identify the fertilizer-borne input of nitrate. However, the factor controlling Mn occurrence seemingly was the depth of monitoring wells and the screen-length. Elevated concentrations of Mn and a high ∆Mn-Fe were generally found in shallow wells and wells with short screen-lengths.

A novel numerical modelling of well-aquifer response induced by pressure disturbance

&lt;p&gt;Under hydrostatic conditions, the water level observed in a well is often supposed to be equivalent to the pressure head in the surrounding aquifer. When the aquifer is subject to disturbing processes and activities, fluctuations of water level can be observed. Generally, the measured water level in the well is often considered to be less than the pressure head in the aquifer due to wellbore storage and skin effects (Ramey et al., 1972). In fact, there is another factor that can suppress or enhance the oscillating water level, which is termed the amplification effect (Cooper et al., 1965). Related studies point out that this effect is affected by well geometry (e.g. well diameter, water column height and well screen length), aquifer properties (e.g. transmissivity and storativity) and the period of the disturbed pressure head (Kipp, 1985; Liu, 1989). However, previous studies have obvious divergences in quantifying the amplification effect.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this work, we firstly established an idealized fluid model to simplify the complex solid-fluid coupling process, aiming to discuss the influence of different well geometry parameters on the amplification factor separately, such as the well diameter, water column height and well screen length. Subsequently, we built a well-aquifer coupling numerical model to study the well-aquifer response induced by disturbed pressure based on the finite element method. Simulations of 125 scenarios showed that the amplification factor gradually increased until it reached a peak, and then decreased to 1 as the period of disturbed pressure became larger. The corresponding period of an amplification factor peak was significantly influenced by the water column height, which controlled the position of an &amp;#8220;optimal period&amp;#8221;. Aquifer properties can also affect the amplification factor, especially its peak value. In further numerical studies, more complicated scenarios will be investigated, considering different types of wells and aquifers.&lt;/p&gt;

On the conceptual complexity of non-point source management: impact of spatial variability

Non-point source (NPS) pollution has degraded groundwater quality of unconsolidated sedimentary basins over many decades. Properly conceptualizing NPS pollution from the well scale to the regional scale leads to complex and expensive numerical models: key controlling factors of NPS pollution – recharge rate, leakage of pollutants, and soil and aquifer hydraulic properties – are spatially and, for recharge and pollutant leakage, temporally variable. This leads to high uncertainty in predicting well pollution. On the other hand, concentration levels of some key NPS contaminants (salinity, nitrate) vary within a limited range (< 2 orders of magnitude), and significant mixing occurs across the aquifer profile along the most critical compliance surface: drinking water wells with their extended vertical screen length. Given these two unique NPS contamination conditions, we here investigate the degree to which NPS travel time to wells and the NPS source area associated with an individual well can be appropriately captured, for practical applications, when spatiotemporally variable recharge, contaminant leakage rates, or hydraulic conductivity are represented through a sub-regionally homogenized parametrization. We employ a Monte Carlo-based stochastic framework to assess the impact of model homogenization on key management metrics for NPS contamination. Results indicate that travel time distributions are relatively insensitive to the spatial variability of recharge and contaminant loading, while capture zone and contaminant time series exhibit some sensitivity to source variability. In contrast, homogenization of aquifer heterogeneity significantly affects the uncertainty assessment of travel times and capture zone delineation. Surprisingly, the statistics of relevant NPS well concentrations (fast and intermediate travel times) are fairly well reproduced by a series of equivalent homogeneous aquifers, highlighting the dominant role of NPS solute mixing along well screens.

Assessment of Salt Water Upconing to above Groundwater Abstraction Facilities

A methodology for identifying salt water upconing to groundwater abstraction wells has been based on Dagan and Bear method for an abstraction point. The results of the analysis for different design cases of well field and screen length and positions for coastal sand dune aquifer in Thach Ha district, Ha Tinh province has showed that the height of salt water upconing is inversely proportional to the distance from the well screen bottom to the salt and fresh water interface. At the same time, for abstraction wells with the same depth, the height of salt water upconing as well as the time of salt water upconing to the abstraction wells are inversely proportional to the length of the well screen (i.e. the longer the well screen the less salt water upconing). The use of several abstraction wells to reduce the abstraction rate of each well (the total abstraction rate remains unchanged) has the effect of significantly reducing the salt water upconing process. The proposed methodology for salt water upconing assessment has been shown an effective role in supporting the design of groundwater abstraction facilities that are at risk of salinization from the lower part or lower aquifers for sustainable groundwater exploitation on the viewpoint of ensuring the quality of abstracted water and of protecting groundwater resources by limiting (even preventing) salt water intrusion.

Screening Efficiency Analysis of Vibrosieves with the Circular Vibrations

The analysis of influence of factors that depend on construction characteristics of the vibrosieves with circular vibrations on screening efficiency is presented in this paper. The dependence of the screening efficiency on the aperture size, length and inclination of the screen, as well as on vibration amplitude, is considered. Based on obtained results, one can see that the screening efficiency increases with vibration amplitude and the screen length increase. Further, increases of the screen inclination and aperture size are causing an initial increase of the screening efficiency, which is later decreasing.

On the coupled unsaturated–saturated flow process induced by vertical, horizontal, and slant wells in unconfined aquifers

Conventional models of pumping tests in unconfined aquifers often neglect the unsaturated flow process. This study concerns the coupled unsaturated–saturated flow process induced by vertical, horizontal, and slant wells positioned in an unconfined aquifer. A mathematical model is established with special consideration of the coupled unsaturated–saturated flow process and the well orientation. Groundwater flow in the saturated zone is described by a three-dimensional governing equation and a linearized three-dimensional Richards' equation in the unsaturated zone. A solution in the Laplace domain is derived by the Laplace–finite-Fourier-transform and the method of separation of variables, and the semi-analytical solutions are obtained using a numerical inverse Laplace method. The solution is verified by a finite-element numerical model. It is found that the effects of the unsaturated zone on the drawdown of a pumping test exist at any angle of inclination of the pumping well, and this impact is more significant in the case of a horizontal well. The effects of the unsaturated zone on the drawdown are independent of the length of the horizontal well screen. The vertical well leads to the largest water volume drained from the unsaturated zone (W) during the early pumping time, and the effects of the well orientation on W values become insignificant at the later time. The screen length of the horizontal well does not affect W for the whole pumping period. The proposed solutions are useful for the parameter identification of pumping tests with a general well orientation (vertical, horizontal, and slant) in unconfined aquifers affected from above by the unsaturated flow process.

Applications of the discrete element method and Fibonacci sequence on a banana screen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design the geometrical structure of banana screen, and this study aims to improve the screen efficiency. Design/methodology/approach The discrete element method was used to simulate the sieving process of banana screen with the inclinations of decks improved by Fibonacci sequence. The effect of each deck along screen length on the screening efficiency of particles was studied in this paper. Findings The comparisons among three groups of industrial banana screens with five different consecutive Fibonacci numbers have been made, and the variations of fine particle ratio were also investigated. The results show that the banana screening improved by the 5 Fibonacci sequence, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21, has the good screening performance in the simulation. It is found that the inclination degree of the first deck at the feed end is the key factor to determine screening efficiency of banana screens. Practical implications It is not possible to consider all real physical factors exactly in a virtual model. The experiment prototype of banana screen was used to simply verify the feasibility of the methodology. Originality/value This work is helpful for designing the geometric parameters of the curved screen and gives a broad perspective to improve the efficiency of banana screens.

Numerical Investigation of the Influences of Wellbore Flow on Compressed Air Energy Storage in Aquifers

With the blossoming of intermittent energy, compressed air energy storage (CAES) has attracted much attention as a potential large-scale energy storage technology. Compared with caverns as storage vessels, compressed air energy storage in aquifers (CAESA) has the advantages of wide availability and lower costs. The wellbore can play an important role as the energy transfer mechanism between the surroundings and the air in CAESA system. In this paper, we investigated the influences of the well screen length on CAESA system performance using an integrated wellbore-reservoir simulator (T2WELL/EOS3). The results showed that the well screen length can affect the distribution of the initial gas bubble and that a system with a fully penetrating wellbore can obtain acceptably stable pressurized air and better energy efficiencies. Subsequently, we investigated the impact of the energy storage scale and the target aquifer depth on the performance of a CAESA system using a fully penetrating wellbore. The simulation results demonstrated that larger energy storage scales exhibit better performances of CAESA systems. In addition, deeper target aquifer systems, which could decrease the energy loss by larger storage density and higher temperature in surrounding formation, can obtain better energy efficiencies.

On Coupled Unsaturated-Saturated Flow Process Induced by Vertical, Horizontal and Slant Wells in Unconfined Aquifers

Conventional models of pumping tests in unconfined aquifers often neglect the unsaturated flow process. This study concerns coupled unsaturated-saturated flow process induced by vertical, horizontal, and slant wells positioned in an unconfined aquifer. A mathematical model is established with special consideration of the coupled unsaturated-saturated flow process and well orientation. Groundwater flow in the saturated zone is described by a three-dimensional governing equation, and a linearized three-dimensional Richards' equation in the unsaturated zone. A solution in Laplace domain is derived by the Laplace-finite Fourier transform and the method of separation of variables. It is found that the unsaturated zone has significant effects on the drawdown of pumping test with any angle of inclination of the pumping well, and this impact is more significant for the case of a horizontal well. The effects of unsaturated zone on the drawdown are independent of the length of the horizontal well screen. For the early time of pumping, the water volume drained from the unsaturated zone (W) increases with time, and gradually approaches an asymptotic value with time progress. The vertical well leads to the largest W value during the early time, and the effects of the well orientation become insignificant at the later time. The screen length of the horizontal well does not affect W for the whole pumping period. The proposed solutions are useful for parameter identification of pumping tests with a general well orientation (vertical, horizontal, and slant) in unconfined aquifers affected from above by the unsaturated flow process.