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Nitrate transport in a fracture-skin-matrix system under non-isothermal conditions

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Abstract

Subsurface leaching of agricultural runoff has been identified to pose a serious hazard to the soil–water ecosystem and human health, mostly due to the associated contamination with nitrate. Our understanding of the nature of contaminant spread in the vadose and aquifer zones has been improved from recent mechanistic models on the flow and transport of contaminants through fractured porous media. The present study aims to explore the impacts of skin formation in a fracture–matrix aquifer system onto the nitrogen species transport under non-isothermal settings using numerical modeling. A finite-difference scheme was employed to capture the nitrogen concentration profile and kinetics of transformation by solving the derived partial differential equations. The results show evidence of an additional mass transfer from fracture to skin so as to reduce the migration of nitrogen species (NO3-N and N2) at the fracture–matrix interface thereby reducing the peak concentration of N2 by nearly 1.5 times in fracture after denitrification. Although the thermal conductivity of the rock matrix has a direct impact on the temperature distribution in fracture–skin–matrix profiles, the presence of skin has a cooling effect for a high-temperature influent (45 °C), which also deteriorates the propagation of organic N2 and NO3-N, within the fracture. An increase in the temperature coefficient of skin has resulted in an apparent reduction in nitrogen species migration, indicating the thermo-chemical feasibility of an intermediate skin favoring the mass transfer processes. The findings of this study can be extended toward realistic estimation of groundwater contamination risks and for the design of biological filters for in situ remediation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank their respective institutions for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Automobile Engineering, Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600119, India

    Jino Lawrence

  2. Department of Basic & Applied Science, National Institute of Technology—Arunachal Pradesh, Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh, 791113, India

    Vanav Kumar Alagarsamy

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology—Arunachal Pradesh, Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh, 791113, India

    Berlin Mohanadhas

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, 642003, India

    Narayanan Natarajan

  5. Smart and Healthy Infrastructure Lab, Department of Agricultural and Civil Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu, 638401, India

    Mangottiri Vasudevan

  6. Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology–Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India

    Suresh Kumar Govindarajan

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  1. Jino Lawrence
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Contributions

JL contributed in performing numerical experiments; MB and VKA contributed in interpretation of the results and writing the manuscript; NN contributed in preparing the literature review and writing the manuscript; MV and GSK contributed in reviewing the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Narayanan Natarajan.

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Lawrence, J., Alagarsamy, V.K., Mohanadhas, B. et al. Nitrate transport in a fracture-skin-matrix system under non-isothermal conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 18091–18112 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23428-4

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