Designing horizontal well screen begins after the consulting engineer determines that the project site, the contaminant, and the remediation goals are conducive for a Horizontal Remediation Well system. Once the horizontal well screen design is completed, a horizontal well pipe slotter is contacted and given the engineered specifications. The horizontal well screen is then manufactured and shipped to the project site.

What’s Needed for Designing Horizontal Well Screen?

If not already provided, Directional Technologies will request the following information for the design of the horizontal well screen:

• Map showing nearby surface water bodies, underground utilities, buildings, roads, wells
• Boring logs
• Seasonal and historical water level data (hydrographs)
• Potentiometric surface map
• Vertical hydraulic head profile
• Injection or extraction equipment
• Operational parameters
• Groundwater plume maps
• Hydrogeologic cross sections
• Groundwater or soil cleanup target levels
• Grain size distribution data for target zone

Success Criteria – Custom Designed Well Screen

Horizontal well screen is custom designed to meet several competing success criteria:

Custom designed horizontal well screen

• Develop and specify detailed slot configuration and slot distribution that will achieve a constant extraction or injection rate along the full length of the horizontal well screen.
• Optimize the development of the natural filter pack in the soil formation surrounding the horizontal well screen, particularly during extraction operations.
• Adjust the horizontal well screen design to accommodate horizontal well specifications, including pipe diameter, material properties of the horizontal well pipe, riser length, conveyance lines, and elevation changes.
• Properly account for known hydrogeologic properties of the target formation, including hydraulic head,  hydraulic conductivity, grain size distribution, anisotropy, and heterogeneity, to the extent available, in the design of the horizontal well screen.
• Allow maximum flexibility in operational parameters, including applied pressures and flow rates during both injection and extraction operations.
• Introduce horizontal well screen characteristics that will facilitate the transition from injection to extraction mode and account for changes in flow rates and fluid mechanical properties of injected and extracted fluids during various phases of the remediation program.

In Directional Technologies’ 24+ years experience installing horizontal wells, we know that site-specific situations arise that need the experience of our environmental directional drilling crew and our engineers to tweak and finalize the entire horizontal well system design.

For additional information on designing horizontal well screen, see our article, Achieving Delivery Goals with Engineered Screens under our Symposium Presentation tab.

Directional Technologies, Inc. is the expert Horizontal Remediation Well drilling contractor.  The company has over 24 years of Horizontal Remediation Well experience.  Contact us at  1-877-788-4HRW or drilling@directioanltech.com for additional information or to discuss your next Horizontal Remediation Well project.