ABSTRACT
In general, fractured aquifers are complex, anisotropic, and heterogeneous. Fractures play a multiple role in aquifer property alteration by changing the porosity or the permeability or both. The geometric idealizations of blocks and fractures are not enough for the mathematical treatment of groundwater flow in fractured rocks. Fractured aquifer models have appeared in the petroleum reservoir engineering domain and all of the mathematical results were presented on semilogarithmic paper drawdown vs. logarithm of time. The field time-drawdown data for the application of the methodology developed herein have been adopted from E. D. Smith and N. D. Vaughan. They conducted a low-rate aquifer test in a folded and fractured limestone formation in the Conasauga group of eastern Tennessee. Fluctuations of groundwater level in the multi-aquifer wells can be predicted by using the volumetric approach. Water-level response in many observation wells has shown a through-like depression, indicating the effect of the vertical fracture on the equipotential and flow lines.
