Search

Spatial heterogeneity of the hydraulic properties of geological porous formations leads to erratically shaped solute clouds, thus increasing the edge area of the solute body and augmenting the dilution rate. In this study, we provide a theoretical framework to quantify dilution of a non-reactive solute within a steady state flow as affected by the spatial variability of the hydraulic conductivity. Embracing the Lagrangian concentration framework, we obtain explicit semi-analytical expressions for the dilution index as a function of the structural parameters of the random hydraulic conductivity field, under the assumptions of uniform-in-the-average flow, small injection source and weak-to-mild heterogeneity. Results show how the dilution enhancement of the solute cloud is strongly dependent on both the statistical anisotropy ratio and the heterogeneity level of the porous medium. The explicit semi-analytical solution also captures the temporal evolution of the dilution rate; for the early- and late-time limits, the proposed solution recovers previous results from the literature, while at intermediate times it reflects the increasing interplay between large-scale advection and local-scale dispersion. The performance of the theoretical framework is verified with high resolution numerical results and successfully tested against the Cape Cod field data.

The impact of the logconductivity (Y = ln K) distribution fY on transport at the MADE site is analyzed. Our principal interest is in non-Gaussian fY characterized by heavier tails than the Gaussian. Both the logconductivity moments and fY itself are inferred, taking advantage of the detailed measurements of Bohling et al. (2012). The resulting logconductivity distribution displays heavier tails than the Gaussian, although the departure from Gaussianity is not significant. The effect of the logconductivity distribution on the breakthrough curve (BTC) is studied through an analytical, physically based model. It is found that the non-Gaussianity of the MADE logconductivity distribution does not strongly affect the BTC. Counterintuitively, assuming heavier tailed distributions for Y, with same variance, leads to BTCs which are more symmetrical than those for the Gaussian fY, with less pronounced preferential flow. Results indicate that the impact of strongly non-Gaussian, heavy tailed distributions on solute transport in heterogeneous porous formations can be significant, especially in the presence of high heterogeneity, resulting in reduced preferential flow and retarded peak arrivals.

Flow and transport take place in a formation of spatially variable conductivity K(x). The latter is modeled as a lognormal stationary random space function. With Y=lnK, the structure is characterized by the mean 〈Y〉, the variance σY2, the horizontal and vertical integral scales Ih and Iv. The fluid velocity field V(x), driven by a constant mean head gradient, has a constant mean U and a stationary two-point covariance. Transport of a conservative solute takes place by advection and by pore-scale dispersion (PSD), that is assumed to be characterized by the constant longitudinal and transverse dispersivities αdL and αdT. The local solute concentration C(x, t), a random function of space and time, is characterized by its statistical moments. While the mean concentration 〈C〉 was investigated extensively in the past, the aim here is to determine the variance σC2, a measure of concentration fluctuations. This is achieved in a Lagrangean framework, continuous limit of the particle-tracking procedure, by adopting a few approximations. The present study is a continuation of a previous one (Dagan, G., Fiori, A., 1997. The influence of pore-scale dispersion on concentration statistical moments in transport through heterogeneous aquifers. Water Resour. Res., 33, 1595–1606) and extends it as follows: (i) it is shown that the indepence of the advective component of a solute particle trajectory from the trajectory component associated with PSD, is a rigorous first-order approximation in σY2. This independence, that was conjectured in the work of Dagan and Fiori (Dagan, G., Fiori, A., 1997. The influence of pore-scale dispersion on concentration statistical moments in transport through heterogeneous aquifers. Water Resour. Res., 33, 1595–1606), simplifies considerably the solution; (ii) the covariance of two-particle trajectories, needed in order to evaluate σC2, is rederived, correcting for an error in the previous work. The general results are applied to determining CVC=σC/〈C〉 at the center of a small solute body, of initial size much smaller than Ih=Iv, as function of σY2, t′=tU/I and Pe=UI/DdT=I/αdT. Though PSD reduces considerably CVC as compared with advective transport (Pe=∞), its value is still quite large for time intervals of interest in applications. This finding is in agreement with the analysis of field data by Fitts (Fitts, C.R., 1996. Uncertainty in deterministic groundwater transport models due to the assumption of macrodispersive mixing: evidence from the Cape Cod (Massachussets, USA) and Borden (Ontario, Canada) tracer tests. J. Contam. Hydrol., 23, 69–84).

We present a stochastic analytical framework to assess the contaminant concentration of a steady plume undergoing biodegradation. The method is focused on heterogeneous formations, and it embeds both fringe and core degradation. The Lagrangian concentration approach of Fiori (2001) was employed, which is suited for describing the interplay between the large scale advection caused by heterogeneity and the local dispersion processes. The principal scope of the model is to provide a relatively simple tool for a quick assessment of the contamination level in aquifers, as function of a few relevant, physically based dimensionless parameters. The solution of the analytical model is relatively simple and generalizes previous approaches developed for homogeneous formations. It is found that heterogeneity generally enhances mixing and degradation; in fact, the plume shear and distortion operated by the complex, heterogeneous velocity field facilitates local dispersion in diluting the contaminant and mixing it with the electron acceptor. The decay of the electron donor concentration, and so the plume length, is proportional to the transverse pore-scale dispersivity, which is indeed the parameter ruling mixing and hence degradation. While the theoretical plume length is controlled by the fringe processes, the core degradation may determine a significant decay of concentration along the mean flow direction, thus affecting the length of the plume. The method is applied to the crude oil contamination event at the Bemijdi site, Minnesota (USA).