Hydrodynamic simulation and analysis of groundwater regime as impacted by radial collector wells: A case study of Belgrade's water supply source

Abstract

The currently prevalent practice in hydrodynamic research is to assess radial wells by constructing a hydrodynamic model. Numerical modeling codes tended to limit the possibility of realistically representing the structural characteristics of a radial well (shaft and laterals), along with the groundwater abstraction mechanism via the known groundwater level within the laterals and the calibrated coefficient of their conductivity. Such limitations were offset by various boundary condition modeling techniques in order to produce a so-called 'representative' depiction of the radial well, which did not fail to affect the results. The objective of the present research is to assess the simulation of radial wells in MODFLOW- USG code, based on a numerical method of finite volumes. One of the radial wells at Belgrade's water supply source was selected for the case study, given that a complex groundwater regime change had been registered within its zone of influence. The results indicate that the method can be applied to simulate virtually all aspects and operational conditions of this type of well, with the highest level of representativeness.

Keywords

• water supply
• radial wells
• hydrodynamic modeling
• MODFLOW-USG