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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Environmental Geosciences (DEG)

Abstract


AAPG Division of Environmental Geosciences Journal
Vol. 4 (1997), No. 2., Pages 58-67

Evaluation of Two Methods for Determining Soil Gas Permeabilities from Pneumatic Tests

Xun-Hong Chen

Abstract

Soil permeabilities are crucial in the analysis of a soil vapor remediation system. This article presents two methods for determining vertical and horizontal soil permeability (kz and kr) from pneumatic test data. Both the first method, the Newton-Raphson procedure, and the second, the sensitivity analysis method, use the analytical solution developed by Shan et al. (1992) to model a steady-state gas flow to a well partially penetrating the vadose zone. The Newton-Raphson method determines soil permeabilities by using gas pressures collected from two or more observation locations. Calculation examples indicate that the method is efficient and reliable in determination of kr and kz values. This method was compared with the sensitivity analysis technique, which is more flexible in accommodating the number of data points. Both methods give kr and kz values very close to the real solutions. However, calculation examples show that the Newton-Raphson method is more liberal in the selection of initial kr values for the iteration process. It also requires fewer iteration steps to reach a convergence in the cases where the number of data points is less than six.


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