NUMERICAL SIMULATION FOR TRANSPORT OF REACTIVE MULTICHEMICAL COMPONENTS IN GROUNDWATER

Abstract

Saturated flow through a porous media and where a portion of the flow domain contains a certain mass of solute. This solute is referred to as a tracer. The concentration distribution of the tracer is mainly a function of advection, mechanical dispersion, and molecular diffusion in addition to other phenomena. Tracer interacts with the solid surface of the porous matrix in the form of adsorption of tracer particles on the solid surface, deposition, solution of the solid matrix, ion exchange, etc. These phenomena cause change in the concentration of a tracer in a flowing solution, Radioactive decay and chemical reactions within the solution also cause tracer concentration changes. Variations in tracer concentration cause changes in liquid density and viscosity. These changes affect the flow velocity that depends upon these properties. Development of scientifically sound management for protecting groundwater resources must be based upon a firm understanding of contaminant behavior in natural subsurface environment. Realistic pollution scenarios share two important characteristics: First, surface chemical reactions such as adsorption are important due to the enormous solid water interface area of natural porous media. Second, groundwater aquifers exhibit significant small scale, three-dimensional spatial variability in permeability.