Active‐distributed temperature sensing to continuously quantify vertical flow in boreholes. Issue 5 (6th May 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Read, T.; Bour, O.; Selker, J. S.; Bense, V. F.; Borgne, T. Le; Hochreutener, R.; Lavenant, N.
• Is Part Of: Water resources research. Volume 50:Issue 5(2014:May)
• Page Start: 3706
• Page End: 3713
• Publication Date: 2014-05-06
• Subjects: Hydrology -- Periodicals; 333.91
• DOI: 10.1002/2014WR015273
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0043-1397

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>We show how a distributed borehole flowmeter can be created from armored Fiber Optic cables with the Active‐Distributed Temperature Sensing (A‐DTS) method. The principle is that in a flowing fluid, the difference in temperature between a heated and unheated cable is a function of the fluid velocity. We outline the physical basis of the methodology and report on the deployment of a prototype A‐DTS flowmeter in a fractured rock aquifer. With this design, an increase in flow velocity from 0.01 to 0.3 m s⁻¹ elicited a 2.5°C cooling effect. It is envisaged that with further development this method will have applications where point measurements of borehole vertical flow do not fully capture combined spatiotemporal dynamics.</p> </abstract>