Influence of groundwater flow in fractured aquifers on standing column wells performance

A coupled model of a standing column well is developed to evaluate the influence of groundwater flow in fractured aquifers. Heat transfer and groundwater flow within a standing column well and its surrounding ground is modeled by means of a resistance and capacity network. The work demonstrates that the presence of a single fracture zone embedded within the bedrock has a significant beneficial effect on the performance of standing column wells. Temperature differences between the homogeneous and fractured aquifer were particularly important when the well was operated at typical bleed ratios. The results show that the model developed in this paper is in good agreement with numerical reference solutions.