ScienceDirect
IFAC-PapersOnLine 48-1 (2015) 234–239
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
2405-8963 © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.05.065
© 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Complex velocity potential, Capture curves, Groundwater remediation, Image well theory,
Surface-subsurface interaction.
1. INTRODUCTION
Capture zone could be defined as the volume of the aquifer
that provides water to the well(s) in the steady state
condition. The study of capture zone is very useful for the
design of contaminated groundwater remediation projects
such as pump-and-treat, plume containment, bioremediation
and chemical oxidation, surface-subsurface water
interactions, well head protection plan and etc. Following the
early work of Muskat (1946) many research have been
conducted on the delineation of well capture zone [Bear
(1979), Javandel et al (1984), Javandel and Tsang (1986),
Grubb (1993), Bakker and Strack (1996), Schafer (1996),
Bair and Lahm (1996), Shan (1999), Christ and Goltz (2002,
2004), Luo and Kitanidis (2004), Kompani-Zare et al. (2005),
Fienen et al. (2005), Zhou and Haitjema (2012), Ataie-
Ashtiani et al. (2012) and De Smedt (2014)].
In all above research analytical approach is used for
describing the capture zone of well(s) in extensive aquifers.
For the cases such as surface-subsurface interaction and
calculation of stream depletion volume the capture zone of
wells that are located close to streams are important issues.
Another issue of concern in regard to aquifer-stream
interaction may be avoiding the interaction of a well with a
polluted stream. Sometimes the containment of a contaminant
source zone by impervious physical barriers and recovering
the contaminant inside the barrier by pumping wells are
required. Therefore, in such cases the well capture zone in
bounded aquifers need to be defined. Intaraprasong and
Zhan (2007) found the capture zone of one well located
between two parallel streams. They studied the effects of two
different streambed-aquifer interfaces on the shape of the
capture zone. The streams have either perfect hydraulic
connection with the aquifer or low-permeability sediments
clogs the interface. Asadi-Aghbolaghi et al. (2011) presented
the capture zone of a pumping well near a stream and
discussed over two critical extraction rates that control well-
aquifer-stream interaction. Samani and Zarei-Doudeji (2012)
present the capture zone of a multi-well system in wedge-
shaped confined and unconfined aquifer with and without
uniform flow. In their solution well types, locations, numbers
and discharging/recharging rates, and uniform flow rate and
direction are optional. Zarei-Doudeji and Samani (2014)
presented an analytical solution for the capture zone of a
multi-well system in peninsula-shaped confined and
unconfined aquifer and demonstrated the engineering
application of their solution.
To our knowledge, solution for capture zone in aquifers that
are bounded in all sides is not found in literatures. In this
paper, we present the capture zone of a multi-well system in a
bounded confined and unconfined aquifer with and without
regional flow. The equation of capture curves are derived
using image well theory and complex velocity function. The
results is given in form of capture type curves that may be
used to hydraulically contain a contaminant plume, to plan
pump-and-treat and remediation projects, to estimate stream
Department of Earth Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71454, Iran
*(Tel: +98 713 228 4572; e-mail: samani@ susc.ac.ir).
** (Tel: +98 917 337 1344; e-mail:szarei@shirazu.ac.ir)
Abstract: The capture zone equations of a multi-well system in bounded confined and unconfined
aquifers are derived. The aquifer is rectangular shaped in plan view and bounded along all four sides. The
boundaries could be in-flow (constant head) or no-flow (barrier) or a combination of both and hence six
boundary configurations are formed. Using the image well theory the flow field in bounded aquifers is
first transformed to its equivalent in extensive aquifers and then the complex velocity potential theory is
applied for the generation of stream function delineating the capture envelope. We show that the derived
solution is general and it may be easily reformulated for some existing solutions of capture zone. Our
solution is flexible in terms of well number, well location, well type, extraction/injection rate, uniform
regional flow rate and direction and number of boundaries. The derived equations are presented in form
of dimensionless capture type curves that may be used for the remediation of contaminated groundwater
project design, containment of contaminant plumes and the evaluation of surface-subsurface water
interaction.
A General Analytical Capture Zone model:
A Tool for Groundwater Remediation
Nozar Samani* Somayeh Zarei-Doudeji**