Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Heterogeneous aquifers can be characterized by various geostatistical methods and inverse modeling methods with limited core and well data. In this paper, simulated annealing method is applied to find the permeability field that satisfies hydraulic head and breakthrough data obtained from the monitoring wells. For an effective forward modeling, flow is simulated by a finite difference method with conjugate gradient solution method, and tracer transport by streamline simulation. In comparison with simple Kriging, this approach gives more reliable permeability distribution and consequently better results on predicting the contaminant transport. Distribution of monitoring wells is one of very important factors for aquifer characterization. For an effective aquifer characterization, monitoring wells should be placed to cover as much as flow area rather than uniform distribution in the system of interest. Multiple wells on the same streamline path would not help for a better aquifer characterization.