Study of the type curves of horizontal wells in anisotropic unconfined aquifers

A method for direct solution of the boundary problem of flow to the finite and infinite length horizontal-well in an anisotropic unconfined aquifer is provided. In this method,the point source problem is solved and the point source solution is integrated along the well axis to obtain the solution for the horizontal-well with finite length. The results are extended to the case of horizontal well with infinite length. The long time approximations of drawdowns are discussed. The FLHW and ILHW programs are used to develop proper type curves for the both cases, once the location of onitoring points are specified. The differences between the type curves of horizontal wells with those of vertical wells are quite apparent. They converge to each other at late time. The sensitivity of type curves and derivative type curves with respect to the monitoring point location, aquifer anisotropy, horizontal well depth, and length is investigated.

Keywords:

Horizontal well , Green function , Laplace Transform , Type curve