HEADCO: A Program for Converting Observed Water Levels and Pressure Measurements to Formation Pressure and Standard Hydraulic Head

摘要

Static water-level and fluid pressure measurements are commonly converted in hydrologic studies to formation pressure and hydraulic head, which are used to determine groundwater flow characteristics of aquifer systems. While the direct use of field measurements is usually adequate for determining formation pressure and hydraulic head for shallow flow systems (i.e., <1000 ft), corrections and conversion parameters must be used to properly account for fluid-column density effects, which commonly occur with deep systems. This report presents a program, HEADCO, for converting static water-level and pressure measurements to formation pressure and standard hydraulic head. The HEADCO program corrects field measurements for the effects of fluid-density variation and selected external stresses. Factors that affect density of the fluid column, in which field measurements are made, include temperature, pressure, salinity, suspended solids, and multiphase conditions. External stresses examined in HEADCO include barometric and earth tide fluctuations, and gravitational acceleration variation. A program description and procedures for converting field measurements obtained using field test arrangements commonly employed in the Basalt Waste Isolation Project field program are provided in this report. The report includes user instructions and an illustrative test example. Results of a field example comparison are also provided. This comparison examines observed and HEADCO-calculated pressures for 30 pressure probes recently calibrated in a laboratory and tested under field conditions at borehole DC-8. The test case and field example comparisons indicate that HEADCO provides accurate estimates of formation pressure and standard hydraulic head that are well within the accuracy range of downhole pressure-measuring instrumentation. 44 refs., 14 figs., 8 tabs. (ERA citation 11:012030)