Hydrologic characterization of coal seams for methane recovery--Activities 3 and 6 progress report: computer program for optimal dewatering for methane production. Topical report, January 1983-December 1984

The report describes progress on a computer program for automatically determing the optimum number of wells and their best locations for dewatering for methane production under a wide variety of hydrologic conditions. The contractor's existing computer model for designing a dewatering wellfield was modified (1) to maximize total methane released, (2) to exclude specified regions within a property as potential well sites, (3) to include the effects of directional permeability and leakage, (4) to include equations for hydraulic fracturing, and (5) to apply to the unsaturated flow regime which has been identified between single-phase flow of water and true two-phase flow of water and gas.