COMPOSITE MODELING APPROACH AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY FOR SUBSURFACE TRANSPORT OF CONTAMINANTS FROM LAND-DISPOSAL SITES

1 .　INTRODUCTIONThecontaminationofsoiland groundwatersystemsandtheadverseeffectsofthecontamina tionoftheseresourceshavebecomeamatterofconsiderableconcern .Thetransportofcontami nantsinsoilandgroundwaterisacompositionofcomplexchemicalandhydraulicphenomena .Dur ingthepastdecadesmuchattentionhasbeengiventothetheoryandmodelingofcontaminanttrans portinsaturatedsoil (Davidetal.1996 ;Bouchard1988;Brusseauetal .1989) .Thisdevelopmenthasbeenacceleratedandincreasedduetothedifficultyandhighcostsof…

COMPOSITE MODELING APPROACH AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY FOR SUBSURFACE TRANSPORT OF CONTAMINANTS FROM LAND-DISPOSAL SITES

A composite modeling approach was presented for simulating the three-dimensional (3-D) subsurface transport of dissolved contaminants with transformation products. The approach was based on vertical infiltration and contaminant transport in the unsaturated zone and 3-D groundwater flow and contaminant migration in the saturated zone. Moisture movement and groundwater flow were considered to be steady, but contaminant transport was treated as continuous and transient. The transformed unsaturated zone and saturated zone transport equations were solved numerically with different techniques. The model contains a 3-D solution to flow and transport in the saturated zone, as well as two-dimensional solutions to vertical cross-sectional and areal scenarios. In order to verify the composite modeling, extensive experiments were conducted in two large-scale variable-slope soil tanks of 1200cm in length, 150cm in width and 150cm in height. Sand soil was filled in the tank as the porous media. The solutions of KBr or NH4C1 were introduced into each soil tank from 80×37cm2 area sources located on the top of the porous medium. Results from numerical simulations were compared with the data from tests. Predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental data.