Double Porosity Well Testing in the Fractured Carbonate Rocks of the Ozarks

Abstract

AbstractThe objective of this research was to determine a well test model which could be used for determining the hydraulic parameters of T and S in the complex fractured carbonates of the Ozarks of southern Missouri. Municipal water well testing in the Ozarks is performed on deep wells completed in confined fractured carbonate aquifers where all of the flow to the wellbore is through the fractures but most of the storage is in the matrix blocks. Observation wells are not used because of cost. The methodology uses double porosity well test analysis including the inner boundary conditions of skin and wellbore storage. Using this method, S and T are obtained as well as the storativity ratio, ω, and the block to fracture flow parameter λ. Because wellbore storage, skin, and storativity are interrelated, a computer simulation to find the final S was necessary. Derivative curve analysis provided a constraint in determining the correctness of the simulation results. Failure to use this well test method proved to result in storativities which are much too large. An example is presented.