Terminology
Water well: Any excavated hole in the ground that can be
used to obtain water supply purposes
Drilled well: A water well constructed by drilling.
Synonyms are tube well, production well or production
borehole.
Water may flow to the surface naturally after excavation
(flowing artesian wells or positive wells) but more commonly it
must be pumped (negative wells)
Typical structure of a vertical drilled well
According to the
Diameter:
Small diameter (diameter of last pipe <300 mm)
Large diameter (diameter of last pipe >300 mm)
Depth:
Shallow (total depth < 200 m)
Medium (200 m < total depth < 500 m)
Large (total depth > 500 m)
Function
Drainage well/dewatering well (eg. in mining areas)
Working well/productiopn well (eg. water works)
Pumping well (eg. thermal water utilization)
Direction
Vertical
Horizontal
Inclined
Pressure conditions
Positive
Negative
Hand-dug well
large diameter, usually shallow depth, water well
constructed by manual labour. Synonyms are dug well
or open well
Hand-dug well in Combined hand-dug
unconsolidated aquifer well&drilled well in
unconsolidated aquifer
Hand-dug well (Norton well)
Operated by manual pump
Screened on the first aquifer (shallow depth)
Exploratory borehole/well
Small diameter, sometimes rock sample collection
A borehole drilled for the aim of obtaining
information about the subsurface geology &
groundwater conditions
Synonyms are investigation borehole, exploration
borehole or pilot borehole
Later can be complete to explotation well
Observation borehole/well
A borehole constructed to obtain information in
grondwater level or water quality
Can be equipped with electronic dataloggers for a
long-term data collection
Piezometer
a small diameter borehole or tube constructed
for the measurement of hydraulic head at a
specific depth in an aquifer
Test well
a borehole drilled to test an aquifer by means
of pumping tests
A shallow horizontal well usually constructed in the
bed of a river or along a river bank in an alluvial
aquifer to collect infiltrated surface water
Advantage of the system is: infiltrated water is free
from suspended impurities (like microorganisms)
Infiltration gallery in unconsolidated gravel aquifer/gravel pack below river bed
On or near the surface infiltration galleries are
‘trenches’ or ‘tunnels’ (in horizontal way they are
more longer then in vertical way)
An infiltration gallery may also be the best way to
product water from a thin aquifer or lens of fresh
water overlying saline water.
We can use it not only in porous layer, but in karst
terrains
Gallery in karst terrains:
Excavating galleries in spring (1)
Using galleries located below the altitude of the
spring with sluices placed between the impervious
and aquifer layers for water release control (2)
Combining the use of gallery and vertical wells
drilled through impervious layers at the margins or
into the aquifer layer themselves (3)
Two types of infiltration galleries near Miskolc
Gallery in karst terrains:
Opening of a large diameter well in the bordering
impervious rocks with at a certain depth a gallery
branches off, in the interior of which horizontal or
vertical wells are drilled (4)
A gravity drain located at the same level as the
gallery can complete the exploitation method based
on the opening of a large diameter well in the
bordering impervious rocks where a gallery
branches off at a certain depth, in the interior of
which horizontal or vertical wells are drilled (5)
Constuction of a well-gallery system above sea level
to avoid salinization (6)
Radial collector well (Ranney well)
Wells with horizontal drains
Ancestors of these wells were known from XI-XV centuries
Horizontal smaller diameter shafts were digged by manual
labour to tap the water from water-bearing layers to
increase yield
The modern Ranney well technology was first
implemented in oil industry to extract oil from saturated
sand and gravel layers
Later it was applied for water production too (1934)
In the next 70 years over 2000 of these structures were built
all over the word
Big sizes: 10 meter diameter; 60 meters depth; horizontal
drains longer than 100 meters; maximum initial yield is up
to 2,0 m3/s
Radial collector well
A large diameter vertical well with horizontal
boreholes extending radially outwards into the aquifer
(also known as a Ranney well)
Radial well in weathered zone
of crystallin aquifer
Radial collector well
Method of pressing drains into the aquifer:
- Drilling head at the beginning of the pipe
- Also hydrostatic water pressure is used to disrupt the
sandy-gravel mixture
- With this technology man avoid the damage of the filter
- Pushing of drilling head and pumping proceed is
continued until reaching required lenght
Radial collector well
Filter pipe with drilling head
Structure of the filter
Radial collector well
Gate valves
Production pipes
Qanat
An infiltration gallery which the water flows to
the point of abstraction under gravity (synonyms
are falaj, karez, kariz )
Qanat in unconsolidated gravel aqiufer
Cistern – Bosnia&Herzegovina
