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Investigation of relative permeability, saturation and capillary pressure relations of NAPL-contaminated sands

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

The relations among relative permeability, saturation degree and capillary pressure (kr–S–P) in a three-phase system are important theoretical bases for the modelling of organic contaminant transport and physical remediation. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the kr–S–P relations of organic contaminated sands.

Materials and methods

Fine sand and medium sand were selected as the test media. Diesel, heptane and toluene were selected as the representative non-aqueous-phase liquids (NAPLs), and distilled water was taken as the aqueous phase. By using modified Parker’s scaling method, the S–P relations in two-phase systems (water–air, NAPL–air and water–NAPL) obtained by Buchner funnel tests were extended to a three-phase system. Then, applying the Mualem kr–S model to the S–P relations, the kr values of air, water and NAPL in a three-phase system were obtained and discussed.

Results and discussion

The results showed that the entry pressure of the non-wetting phase in the two-phase system was jointly influenced by the interface tension between the non-wetting phase and the wetting phase. In the three-phase system, the kr of water and NAPL were smaller than 0.05 when the effective air saturation was greater than 0.7. The results also suggested that the kr of air has an approximate linear relation with \( {\overline{S}}_{\mathrm{t}} \) from 0 to 0.6.

Conclusions

When the air phase is dominant in the three-phase system, the aqueous phase and NAPL can be considered as the immobile phase, and the kr of the air phase can be approximately expressed as a linear decreasing relationship with \( {\overline{S}}_{\mathrm{t}} \), which can be applied to simplify the modelling of soil vapour extraction (SVE). Furthermore, the study provides a useful theoretical reference for contaminant transport and physical remediation in organic contaminated sandy soils.

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Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877240, 41672280, 41330641) and the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1802300).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Baiyang Mao, Zhibin Liu, Songyu Liu, Menghuan Zhang & Taishan Lu

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban Underground Engineering & Environmental Safety, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Baiyang Mao, Zhibin Liu, Songyu Liu, Menghuan Zhang & Taishan Lu

Authors
  1. Baiyang Mao
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  2. Zhibin Liu
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  3. Songyu Liu
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  4. Menghuan Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhibin Liu.

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Responsible editor: Lu Zhang

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Mao, B., Liu, Z., Liu, S. et al. Investigation of relative permeability, saturation and capillary pressure relations of NAPL-contaminated sands. J Soils Sediments 20, 1609–1620 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02506-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02506-0

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