Temperature Logging as an Aid to Understanding Groundwater Flow in Boreholes

摘要

Borehole temperatures are affected by a range of physical phenomena, including drilling and engineering procedures, thermal resistivity of the rock, surface climatic changes, local heat sources and sinks, free convection of the borehole fluid, and water flows inside the borehole. As a result, temperature logs provide unique information not available from other logs. On the other hand, because the temperature log is sensitive to a variety of phenomena, one or more of these may obscure the effect being studied. In the case where groundwater is entering the borehole at one depth and exiting at another depth (or at the surface) the temperature disturbance resulting from this flow is likely to be a prominent feature of the temperature profile of the borehole. Because of this, water flows in boreholes are often a source of noise in temperature logs, obscuring the features of interest. Recently, however, unusual groundwater behavior was noted in several boreholes at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and temperature logs were run as part of a program to study this phenomenon. In this case the groundwater flow has been the feature of interest in the logs, and the logs have been useful as an aid in understanding the water flow in those boreholes. (ERA citation 13:006579)