Approximate solutions for Forchheimer flow during water injection and water production in an unconfined aquifer

Abstract

Understanding the hydraulics around injection and production wells in unconfined aquifers associated with rainwater and reclaimed water aquifer storage schemes is an issue of increasing importance. Much work has been done previously to understand the mathematics associated with Darcy’s law in this context. However, groundwater flow velocities around injection and production wells are likely to be sufficiently large such as to induce significant non-Darcy effects. This article presents a mathematical analysis to look at Forchheimer’s equation in the context of water injection and water production in unconfined aquifers. Three different approximate solutions are derived using quasi-steady-state assumptions and the method of matched asymptotic expansion. The resulting approximate solutions are shown to be accurate for a wide range of practical scenarios by comparison with a finite difference solution to the full problem of concern. The approximate solutions have led to an improved understanding of the flow dynamics of concern. They can also be used as verification tools for future numerical models in this context.