Estimation of Hydraulic Parameters of a Fractured Rock Aquifer Using Derivative Analysis

Derivative analysis, based on the derivative of the drawdown as a function of time (i.e., rate of drawdown change), was applied to the evaluation of hydraulic parameters of the aquifer as an aid of the aquifer test interpretation based on the Theis solutions. Pumping tests were conducted at a coastal fractured aquifer in Muan county, Korea, of which the drawdown data, measured at the two observation wells, were used for derivative analysis. Wellbore storage and transition period were hard to identify at conventional log-log and semi long plots, but was easily recognized by distinctive curves of positive unit slope, hump and negative unit slope in the derivative plot. For the observation well of OW-2 at which wellbore storage and transition lasted over an hour, conventional aquifer analysis would suffer from the uniqueness problems and in further result in erroneous hydraulic parameters. Derivative analysis was found to be effective for distinguishing the drawdown data directly reflecting the aquifer property from those reflecting non aquifer effects such as wellbore storage and transition, which offers a unified methodology to yield correct hydraulic parameters from aquifer test data.