15 Basic Hydraulic Testing with Packers

This section addresses how the hydrogeologic properties of sections of boreholes can be characterized. In some settings it is desirable to determine the hydraulic properties of one or more sections of a borehole penetrating semi‑consolidated or consolidated materials. In others, a portion of a screened interval penetrating an unconsolidated formation that has collapsed around the screened interval during well completion can be characterized using packers set inside the screen.

Bradbury and others (2006) provide a good summary of borehole characterization methods in “Contaminant Transport through Aquitards: Technical Guidance for Aquitard Assessment↗”, which is available for download on the gw-project.org site. It provides information on the application of geophysical tools, instrumentation, and methods to estimate hydraulic properties. It is recommended that the reader review this document to broaden the discussion presented here that focuses mainly on the use of packers to isolate intervals of the borehole and characterize hydrogeologic properties of these isolated sections.