HEAD PROFILES
Obtaining head profiles with the Water FLUTe

The Water FLUTe system is well suited for obtaining head profiles for several reasons:

• The liner seals the entire hole in those portions where a seal is possible
• The water level for each sampling port rises in the sampling system for tagging from the surface (provided the water table is not much more than 200 ft. below the surface)
• Pressure transducers are often installed in the Water FLUTe pumping system below the first check valve to allow continuous monitoring of the head at each port elevation in the hole.

Once these profiles have been obtained, the transmissivity estimates deduced from the FLUTe Hydraulic Conductivity Profiler method can be corrected for the actual head difference between the liner water level and the formation water level.

Head profiles are commonly measured with both the tag from the surface and with a transducer on the sampling system. This provides a good verification of the transducer history. However, head measurements with the tag line should be done after the system has been purged at least once. The reason is that a decreasing head in the formation may not be followed by the water in the sampling system if the first check valve is a good seal. See the Water FLUTe system for the details of the sample pumping system.

These head measurements are as detailed as the spacing and number of ports. During pumping tests of the formation, this head data is very useful towards characterizing the flow field in the formation with the many boundary conditions of nearby pumping, infiltration and even lunar earth tides in some cases. Detailed head history data is best collected with a pressure transducer.

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