Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection
Managing recharge of freshwater into saline aquifers requires accurate estimation of the heterogeneous permeability field for maximizing injection and recovery efficiency. Here we present a methodology for subsurface characterization in saline aquifers that takes advantage of the density difference...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Geophysical Union
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110560 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-704X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 |
| _version_ | 1811084239158902784 |
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| author | Kang, Peter K. Lee, Jonghyun Lee, Seunghak Kitanidis, Peter K. Fu, Xiaojing Juanes, Ruben |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Kang, Peter K. Lee, Jonghyun Lee, Seunghak Kitanidis, Peter K. Fu, Xiaojing Juanes, Ruben |
| author_sort | Kang, Peter K. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Managing recharge of freshwater into saline aquifers requires accurate estimation of the heterogeneous permeability field for maximizing injection and recovery efficiency. Here we present a methodology for subsurface characterization in saline aquifers that takes advantage of the density difference between the injected freshwater and the ambient saline groundwater. We combine high-resolution forward modeling of density-driven flow with an efficient Bayesian geostatistical inversion algorithm. In the presence of a density difference between the injected and ambient fluids due to differences in salinity, the pressure field is coupled to the spatial distribution of salinity. This coupling renders the pressure field transient: the time evolution of the salinity distribution controls the density distribution which then leads to a time-evolving pressure distribution. We exploit this coupling between pressure and salinity to obtain an improved characterization of the permeability field without multiple pumping tests or additional salinity measurements. We show that the inversion performance improves with an increase in the mixed convection ratio—the relative importance between viscous forces from injection and buoyancy forces from density difference. Our work shows that measuring transient pressure data at multiple sampling points during freshwater injection into saline aquifers can be an effective strategy for aquifer characterization, key to the successful management of aquifer recharge. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:47:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110560 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:47:27Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1105602022-09-28T10:04:11Z Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection Kang, Peter K. Lee, Jonghyun Lee, Seunghak Kitanidis, Peter K. Fu, Xiaojing Juanes, Ruben Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Fu, Xiaojing Juanes, Ruben Managing recharge of freshwater into saline aquifers requires accurate estimation of the heterogeneous permeability field for maximizing injection and recovery efficiency. Here we present a methodology for subsurface characterization in saline aquifers that takes advantage of the density difference between the injected freshwater and the ambient saline groundwater. We combine high-resolution forward modeling of density-driven flow with an efficient Bayesian geostatistical inversion algorithm. In the presence of a density difference between the injected and ambient fluids due to differences in salinity, the pressure field is coupled to the spatial distribution of salinity. This coupling renders the pressure field transient: the time evolution of the salinity distribution controls the density distribution which then leads to a time-evolving pressure distribution. We exploit this coupling between pressure and salinity to obtain an improved characterization of the permeability field without multiple pumping tests or additional salinity measurements. We show that the inversion performance improves with an increase in the mixed convection ratio—the relative importance between viscous forces from injection and buoyancy forces from density difference. Our work shows that measuring transient pressure data at multiple sampling points during freshwater injection into saline aquifers can be an effective strategy for aquifer characterization, key to the successful management of aquifer recharge. United States. Department of Energy (DE-SC0009286) 2017-07-07T19:28:32Z 2017-07-07T19:28:32Z 2017-05 2016-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0043-1397 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110560 Kang, Peter K.; Lee, Jonghyun; Fu, Xiaojing; Lee, Seunghak; Kitanidis, Peter K. and Juanes, Ruben. “Improved Characterization of Heterogeneous Permeability in Saline Aquifers from Transient Pressure Data During Freshwater Injection.” Water Resources Research 53, 5 (May 2017): 4444–4458 © 2017 American Geophysical Union https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-704X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016WR020089 Water Resources Research Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union MIT Web Domain |
| spellingShingle | Kang, Peter K. Lee, Jonghyun Lee, Seunghak Kitanidis, Peter K. Fu, Xiaojing Juanes, Ruben Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title | Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title_full | Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title_fullStr | Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title_short | Improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| title_sort | improved characterization of heterogeneous permeability in saline aquifers from transient pressure data during freshwater injection |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110560 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7120-704X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 |
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