The application of particle swarm optimization algorithms to estimation of aquifer parameters from data of pumping test

Abstract

With the application of article swarm optimization algorithms (PSO), the function optimization problem of analyzing pumping test data in aquifer to estimate such parameters as transmissivity and storage coefficient was to be solved. With the different number of particles and the initial guessed values of transmissivity, the numerical experiments were conducted to explore the effect of these factors on the convergence of PSO algorithm . The results show : 1) that PSO algorithm may be effectively applied to solve the function optimization problem of analyzing pumping test data in aquifer to estimate transmissivity and storage coefficient , 2..that the convergence of PSO algorithm and the computation time are influenced by the number of particles, and the fewer iterations are needed in computation with the larger number of particles , 3) that the ranges of initial guessed values of transmissivity may also bring some effect on the convergence of PSO algorithm and the computation time, the larger the ranges are , the morenumber of iterations and the longer computation time are needed to guaranteed the convergence of PSO algorithm. Compared with other current methods, PSO method is of such advantages as that the principle is easy to understand and the procedure of computation is simple to realized.