A Study of the Characteristics of Groundwater Solute Transport Parameters

Abstract

The study is an attempt to evaluate the behaviour of constituents/pollutants moving with groundwater. Three examples having field relevance have been demonstrated in the study. Dispersivity, adsorptivity and decay which are primary parameters affecting the transport phenomena have been considered. The dispersivity which is the main characterizing parameter in groundwater solute transport problems has been considered for sensitivity analysis. It has also been attempted to quantify errors when a when a 3-D problem is simplified to a 2-D problem and a 2-D problem to a 1-D problem for convenience. The result indicated that one-dimensional analytical and numerical solution of transport equation compares well but simplifying a two-/three-dimensional transport problem to a one-dimensional problem leads to error due to transverse dispersion. Close to the source, advection dominates, whereas away from it the dispersion phenomena dominate. It was also seen that transverse dispersivity becomes prominent as distance increases from the source.