Evaluation of pumping induced flow in observation wells during aquifer testing

The vertical variation of drawdown around pumping wells generates an induced flow in the observation wells. A set of governing equations is presented to couple the drawdown variation and the vertical flux distribution in observation wells. A numerical example is performed to justify the governing equations and to verify the solution methods used by the simulation software WT. The example analyzes the effect of skin loss, wellbore storage, and vertical segmentation on the drawdown and induced flow in observation well during pumping. The evaluation of the Fairborn pumping test involves a vertically homogeneous and anisotropic water table aquifer, uniform well-face drawdown conditions in the pumping well and simulation of the drawdown evolution in the observation well with and without the effect of induced flow. The computer calibrations resulted in small differences between the measured and simulated drawdown curves.