An artificial recharge test aimed at investigating transport characteristics of the injected water plume in a fractured rock aquifer was conducted. The test used an injection well for injecting tap water whose temperature and electrical conductivity were different from the groundwater. Temporal and depth-wise variation of temperature and electrical conductivity was monitored in both the injection well and a nearby observation well. A highly permeable fracture zone acting as the major pathway of groundwater flow was distinctively revealed in the monitoring data. A finite element subsurface flow and transport simulator (FEFLOW) was used to investigate sensitivity of the transport process to associated aquifer parameters. Simulated results showed that aperture thickness of the fracture and the hydraulic gradient of groundwater highly affected spatio-temporal variation of temperature and electrical conductivity of the injected water plume. The study suggests that artificial recharge of colder water in a fractured rock aquifer could create a thermal plume persistent over a long period of time depending on hydro-thermal properties of the aquifer as well as the amount of injected water.

Keywords: FEFLOW;Artificial recharge;Sensitivity analysis;Model calibration;