NEW ERA UNIVERSITY

ASSIGNMENT 3
HYDROLOGY

Submitted by:
Jericho P. Clemen
2CE-2
 Well

What is a Well?

A well is a deep hole or shaft dug into the ground to access

natural resources. There are water wells, oil wells, gas wells, and
more. Wells have been used in many cultures around the world
for over 8,000 years. The first wells were likely dug by hand or with
very simple tools. They provided access to groundwater that
could be brought to the surface. As rain falls, it is absorbed into
the soil. This drips down, providing water to many plants. It
continues moving through layers until it passes the water table. The
water table is the line where the soil stops and water starts. The water
stops when it gets to rock that it can't move past. This creates open
spaces where it gathers into underground pools. In fact, over 90% of
the world's freshwater is underground. By digging down into one
of these underground pools, a bucket can be placed in the water
and then pulled up with a rope. Wells provide a reliable source
of clean water to many homes, farms, and some industries. In
America, more than 15 million homes have water wells. Of course, as
the ground becomes contaminated, the groundwater can also
become contaminated.
 Creating
Well
How Are Wells Made?
While many of the first wells were dug by hand or with simple tools,
today most wells are drilled. The first step to making a well is to find out
where the water is underground. No one wants to drill down to find the
water isn't there! Hiring a hydrogeologist or a groundwater surveyor
can help identify the water table line, where to dig, and what material
will need to be drilled through. It's also important to know about possible
sources of contamination. A well near a dump or animal feeding area is
likely to only provide dirty water. Once the proper area is identified
and the type of material to drill through is known, the proper tool can
be selected. This could be bored with an auger or rotary tool if the
conditions are right. Another option is to smash out the ground with a
percussion cable or even to cut through the ground with high-pressure
water jets. After the shaft is the correct depth, a tube or casing is added
to give stability to the shaft. This is important as it prevents the shaft
from caving in and closing off the well. A cap is attached to the top of
the well to prevent contamination and evaporation. Depending on the
type of well, a spigot, pump, or bucket is added to make the water
accessible.
 Types of Water Wells
There are a few different types of water wells based on
how they are created, their diameter, and depth.

Dug well
Dug wells are traditionally dug by hand or
shovel past the water table. When
the incoming water is higher than the
rate the person digging can bail it out,
it is considered deep enough. It would
then be lined with something, typically
stones or bricks, to prevent collapse.
These are usually covered with
wood, stone, or concrete. These
wells have a large diameter and
expose a large amount of
groundwater. These wells tend to be
shallow and are subject to
contamination. Because they are
shallow, they are often the first type of
well to go dry during a drought.
 Driven Wells

Driven wells are typically made by driving a

pipe into sand or gravel. Before driving the
pipe into the ground, a screened well point is
added to the bottom of the pipe. These are
small wells and simple to build. However,
they only tap shallow water and because
they are not sealed, they contaminate easily.
These wells are 30-50 feet deep depending on
if they are driving by hand or by machine.
 Drilled
Wells

Drilled wells are the deepest type of

well. They are made using percussion
cable or rotary drilling machines. These can
be drilled to depths of more than 1,000 feet!
These are ideal when clay or other types
of rock are above the water table. They
must be sealed and are the most
expensive type of well to construct.
However, they are able to access more
water and are less likely to be impacted by
drought. These are the most common
type of well in existence today.
 Bored
Well

Bored wells are wells which are

constructed with an auger
that digs until it reaches the
water table or encounters a
material such as rock, which
restricts or stops the auger.
Unlike drilled wells, bored
wells are shallow in depth and
draw water from sections of
the earth above the bedrock.

Possible Questions
How many different types of wells are there?
There are three types of wells: dug, driven, and drilled. Drilled are
the most common today. Wells can have a pump or bucket added or
they can be artesian with natural pressure bringing the water to the
surface.

How does a well work?

A shaft is dug down to the water table. The water at this level is
then accessible and can be brought to the surface.

What is the purpose of a well?

Wells are dug to access natural resources. This could be for water,
oil, or gas. They provide a way to capture the resources that are
deep under the ground.
 Geo-Resistivity
Geo-resistivity analysis is a method of determining the
different resistivity values of varying subsurface to
confirm the presence of groundwater in an area. Seven (7)
out of fourteen (14) sites were identified with good
aquifers.

A general DC resistivity survey setup is

outlined in Fig. 159. A current generator
is attached to the (positive) and
negative) electrodes and a current of
magnitude is injected. and are the
potential electrodes. The
nomenclature for referring to the
distance between any two electrodes
is denoted by with appropriate
subscripts. The electrodes can be
deployed anywhere on the surface or in
boreholes and they do not have to be co-
linear.

The flow of currents in the ground causes charges to be

built up on interfaces between regions of differing
conductivity.
These charges contribute to the measured potential
difference.

In a uniform halfspace, the measured potential difference is

given by the following expression:
Theoretical
Formulas

.
 For DC resistivity soundings, plots of the
apparent resistivity versus current
electrode separation are often created. For
simple horizontally layered environments,
these sounding curves provide insight into
the relative thickness and resistivity of
layers (as shown in the interactive figure
below).

DC resistivity sounding curve

At small electrode spacings current flows
only in near-surface regions. Apparent
resistivities look similar to the true
resistivity of overburden.

As current flows deeper, apparent

resistivities are influenced by the true
resistivities of deeper materials.

The sounding curve begins to indicate that

there are at least 2 layers under this
location.

At very large electrode spacings most of

the information reflects deeper ground
because that is where most of the current
is flowing.

The completed sounding curve.

 Pseudosection
Pseudosections are often used to visualize data from 2D profiles. To account
for the fact that measurements with larger electrode separations sample
deeper portions of the earth, lines at degree angles, are drawn from the mid-
points of the current and potential electrode pairs and the datum is plotted at
the intersection of these lines. In cases where a pole transmitter or receiver is
used, the lines are drawn directly from the electrode location. The figure
below shows how an apparent resistivity pseudosection is built for a simple
dipole-dipole profile.
 SOIL RESISTIVITY
TESTING
One of the most important design parameters when considering the
application of cathodic protection for buried structures is the resistivity of the
soil. Soil resistivity testing is an important consideration for assessing the
corrosivity of the environment to buried structures. It also has a tremendous
impact on the selection of anode type, quantity, and configuration. Thus, it is
critical that the CP designer have accurate data on the soil conditions at both
the structure and at any proposed anode system locations. The lack of
sufficient soil resistivity data can render a cathodic protection system (CP
system) design ineffective and can result in costly remediation efforts during
Soil Corrosivity
Soil resistivity is the principal diagnostic factor used to evaluate soil
corrosivity. When performing soil resistivity testing, there are numerous
factors that can be assessed, including soil composition, moisture content,
pH, chloride and sulfate ion concentrations, and redox potential. These are
all common components of a lab or in-situ soil testing program and all have
an impact on soil resistivity. While a comprehensive soil testing program may
be warranted, especially when performing failure analysis, for most
environments the soil resistivity testing data provides an outstanding basis
for assessing soil corrosivity. Below is a typical chart correlating soil
resistivity with soil corrosivity.
Soil Resistivity
Corrosivity Rating
(ohm- cm)

>20,000 Essentially non-corrosive

10,000 to 20,000 Mildly corrosive

5,000 to 10,000 Moderately corrosive

3,000 to 5,000 Corrosive

1,000 to 3,000 Highly corrosive

<1,000 Extremely corrosive


That resistance value R can then be
converted into a soil resistivity value with
the formula: ρ=2×π×a×R where “ρ” is
measured in ohm-cm and “a” is the
spacing of the pins in cm. This value
represents the average soil resistivity at
the depth equivalent to the spacing of the
probes so if the probes are spaced 5 foot
apart, the value derived would be
equivalent to the average soil resistivity at
5 foot depth.
For cathodic protection system design, it is
common to take multiple soil resistivity
measurements using this methodology
with various probe spacings. For shallow
anode placement, it is usually sufficient to
take reading readings at 2.5 ft, 5 ft, 10 ft,
20 ft,
25 ft. For deep anode applications, soil
resistivity measurements may be
recommended at much deeper depths
corresponding with the anticipated depth
of the deep anode system.
TEST
DATA
Resistance(oh
Spacing a(m)
ms)
Conductance
1/R(Siemens)
20 1.21
Layer Effects
It is important to note that the soil resistivity values
generated from the four pin testing represent the
average soil resistivity from the earth surface down
to the depth, and each subsequent probe spacing
includes all of the shallow resistance readings above
it. For cathodic protection design purposes, it is
often necessary to determine the resistance of the
soil at the anode depth by “subtracting” the top
layers from the deep readings. This process of
“subtracting” the top layers requires some form of
computational adjustment. One popular approach is
called the Barnes method which assumes soil layers
of uniform thickness with boundaries parallel to the
surface of the earth. If the measured data indicates
decreasing resistance with increasing electrode
spacing, this method can be used to estimate the
layer resistivities.
The resistance data (R) values should be laid out in a
tabular format and then converted to conductance
which is simply the reciprocal of the resistance
value. The change in conductance is then calculated
for each subsequent spacing. That value is then
converted back to a layer resistance value by taking
the reciprocal of the change in conductance. Finally,
the layer resistivity is calculated using ρ=2×π×a×R.
For the Barnes analysis below, the data shows that a
low resistance zone exists between 60m depth and
100m depth.
BARNES ANALYSIS
Change in Layer Layer
Conductance(
Resistance(oh Resistivity(Oh
Siemens) ms) m-m)
— 1.21 152

40 0.90 0.28 3.57 441

0.83
60 0.63 0.48 2.08 264
1.11
80 0.11 7.5 0.13 17
1.59
100 0.065 6.29 0.16 20
9.09
120 0.058 1.86 0.54 68
15.38

17.24
 Soil Resistivity Testing Equipment Considerations
Electrically speaking, the earth can be a rather noisy environment with
overhead power lines, electric substations, railroad tracks, and many other
sources that contribute to signal noise. This can distort readings, potentially
resulting in significant errors. For this reason, specialized soil meter
equipment that includes sophisticated electronic packages capable of
filtering out the noise is critical when taking soil resistivity data.

There are two basic types of soil resistivity meters: high-frequency and
low- frequency meters.

High-frequency Soil Resistivity Meters

High-frequency meters operate at frequencies well above 60 hz and should be

limited to data collection of about 100 feet in depth. This is because they lack
sufficient voltage to handle long traverses and they induce noise voltage in the
potential leads which cannot be filtered out as the soil resistivity decreases and
the probe spacing increases. These are less expensive than their Low-
Frequency counter parts and are by far the most common meter used for soil
resistivity testing. For CP design purposes, these are frequently used to assess
soil corrosivity and for designing shallow anode applications.

Low-frequency Soil Resistivity Meters

Low-frequency meters generate pulses in the 0.5 to 2.0 hz range and are the
preferred equipment for deeper soil resistivity readings as they can take
readings with extremely large probe spacings. Some models can operate with
spacings many thousands of feet in distance. These models typically include
more sophisticated electronics filtering packages that are superior to those
found in high-frequency models. For CP designs involving deep anode
installations, a low- frequency meter is the preferred equipment to provide
accurate data at depths below 100 ft.
 Field Data Considerations
When collecting accurate soil resistivity data for cathodic protection system design,
it is important that the following best practices are taken into consideration to avoid
erroneous readings:

Suitability of the testing location. The use of the Wenner four pin testing method
requires sufficient open area to properly space the pins to collect data to the
depths necessary. For deep anode cathodic protection systems this would
require a minimum of three times the anticipated anode system depth.
Avoidance of buried piping and other metallic objects. The presence of any buried
metallic structures (piping, conduit, reinforced concrete structures, grounding
systems, etc…) provides low current paths that could cause a short-cutting effect
that would distort the resistance readings and yield an erroneous soil resistivity
reading.
Depth of the probes. It is important that the probes are properly inserted into the
earth. For shallow resistivity readings, probes that are driven too deep can impact
the shallow readings. Ideally, the pins should be no deeper that 1/20th of the
spacing between the pins and no more than 10 cm (4 inches) deep.
Avoid areas of high electrical noise. Soil testing should not be performed
directly under high voltage transmission systems or near other outside sources
of current in the soil such as DC light rail systems.
Accurately record the test location and conditions. It is important that the
location of the testing is accurately recorded along with the soil conditions and
temperature at the time of testing. Testing should not be performed in frozen soil,
or during periods of extreme drought or abnormally wet conditions.

Summary
Soil resistivity testing with accurate collection of data is the best indicator of the
corrosivity of the soil for buried metallic structures and has a significant impact on
the design of cathodic protection systems. The most common test methodology for
field collection of soil data is the Wenner four pin method. When properly collected,
and using appropriate analytical techniques, the soil resistance field data can provide
an accurate assessment of soil resistivity values for use in designing an appropriate
cathodic protection system.