Modeling of radial well lateral screens using 1D finite elements

Abstract

A water supply system including radial wells (RWs) is usually large, extending several tens of kilometers horizontally and is dozens of meters deep. An RW is a vertical shaft with lateral screens, which radially penetrate the soil. A large and complex 3D finite element (FE) mesh also needs to include laterals with cross-sectional dimensions measured in centimeters. An adequate representation of lateral screens by line elements, with nodes coinciding with the 3D FE mesh nodes, is desirable in order to simplify modeling, render the computation efficient, and present the results in an easily readable form. Line elements are introduced for the lateral screens and accuracy of the results is analyzed. It was found that the domain size of an RW (or laterals) has a more pronounced effect on accuracy than mesh density. The authors' conclusion is that the concept of 1D RW lateral screens representation is adequate for practical purposes. © IWA Publishing 2013.