Author(s)

Guillaume Meyzonnat^1*, Florent Barbecot¹, José Antonio Corcho Alvarado², Jean-Marc Lauzon³, Renald McCormack⁴, Antoine Tognelli⁵, Hermann Zeyen⁶, Marina Alazard¹

¹Geotop-UQAM, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Montreal, Canada.
²Spiez Laboratory, Federal Office for Civil Protection, Spiez, Switzerland.
³TechnoRem Inc., Laval, Canada.
⁴Envir’Eau-Puits Inc., Levis, Canada.
⁵CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France.
⁶Department of Earth Sciences, GEOPS Laboratory, Paris-Saclay University, Paris-Sud University, CNRS, Orsay, France.

Distributed temperature sensing is known to provide sharp signals which are very efficient for mapping hydraulically active fractures in wellbores. High-resolution temperature sensing has specifically demonstrated its capacity to characterize very low flows in wellbores. But as sharp as they can be, temperature profiles are often difficult to decipher. The aim of the present work is to provide and to test the “Borehole Heat Budget Calculator” (BHB Calculator), which is implemented as a fast and easy to use tool for the quantitative analysis of depth-temperature profiles. The Calculator is suitable for most pumping and draining configurations, as the heat budget is generalized for modelling multidirectional flow systems within the same wellbore. The formatted worksheet allows the quick exploitation of temperature logs, and is applicable for the characterization of distributed fractures in long screened wellbores. Objectives of the heat modelling are to enhance the readability of complex depth-temperature data, as well as to quantify distribution of inflow intensities and temperatures with depth. The use of heat budget helps to clearly visualize how heat conduction and heat advection contributions are distributed along wellbores profiles. Calculations of inflow temperatures and their evolution through pumping duration is a prerequisite to infer about the nature of aquifer properties (i.e. conduits, distributed or discrete fractures, porous media), as well as to give insight information about the mapping of effective flow paths draining the aquifer. The efficiency and limitations of the BHB Calculator are being tested through high-resolution temperature logging, along with complementary flowmetering and televiewing logging in fractured aquifers located in the St-Lawrence Lowlands, Quebec, Canada.

Fractured Bedrock Aquifer, High-Resolution Temperature Logging, Heat Budget Modelling, Long Screened Wellbores

Meyzonnat, G. , Barbecot, F. , Alvarado, J. , Lauzon, J. , McCormack, R. , Tognelli, A. , Zeyen, H. and Alazard, M. (2019) Borehole Heat Budget Calculator: A New Tool for the Quick Exploitation of High-Resolution Temperature Profiles by Hydrogeologists. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 11, 122-147. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2019.112008.