The Bouwer and Rice Slug Test — An Updatea

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Bouwer and Rice slug test was developed to measure aquifer hydraulic conductivity around boreholes (production, monitoring, or test wells). The wells can be partially penetrating and partially screened, perforated, or otherwise open. The slug test can be based on quickly with‐ drawing a volume of water from the well and measuring the subsequent rate of rise of the water level in the well, or by adding a slug of water and measuring the subsequent rate of fall of the water level in the well. While originally developed for unconfined aquifers, the method can also be used for confined or stratified aquifers if the top of the screen or perforated section is some distance below the upper confining layer. Anomalies (“double straight line effect”) sometimes observed in the measured rate of rise of the water level in the well are attributed to drainage of a gravel pack or developed zone around the well following lowering of the water level. The effect of this drainage can be eliminated by ignoring the early data points and using the second straight line portion in the data plot for calculation of hydraulic conductivity. The method is applicable to any diameter and depth of the borehole, provided that the dimensions of the system are covered by the ranges for which the geometry factor Re has been worked out. The smaller the diameter of the hole, however, the more vulnerable the results will be to aquifer heterogeneities and to inaccuracies in estimating effective well diameters. Computer programs for rapid processing of the field data have been developed.