Date of Award

8-1994

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

First Advisor

David L. Coulliette, PhD

Abstract

This research postulates and demonstrates a modification incorporating rate-limited sorption effects in the USGS SUTRA code for cleanup of a hypothetical sandy aquifer by pump-and-treat remediation methods. Contaminant transport is assumed to be affected by advection, dispersion, and rate-limited sorption/desorption. Sorption is assumed to be either equilibrium or rate-limited, with the rate-limitation described by either a first-order law, or by Fickian diffusion of contaminant through a spherical immobile pore region. Solutions are arrived at by split operator methods for the transport and one-dimensional Galerkin solutions for the solute concentration equations. The resulting model is tested against an analytical Laplace transform model for both first- and Fickian diffusion methods in a radial pumping simulation. Model simulations are used to evaluate equilibrium, first-order and Fickian diffusion effects for pulsed and continuous pumping solutions within a hypothetical aquifer. These show that equilibrium methods under-predicted rebound, while first-order methods may under- and over-predict rebound within the matrix for certain regions and may be equivalent to Fickian diffusion in equilibrium regimes for cleanup time prediction. Model simulations are then used to show the efficiency of pulsed pumping methods in cleanup mass extraction per pumped volume for a contaminated aquifer pump-and-treat remediation activity versus more conventional, continuous pumping methods.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GEE-ENC-94S-01

DTIC Accession Number

ADA284888

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

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