Work

On the Scaling of Transport Phenomena at a Monotonously Changing Hydraulic Conductivity Field

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Monotonously stratified porous medium, where the layered medium changes its hydraulic conductivity with depth, is present in various systems like tilled soil and peat formation. In this study, the flow pattern within a monotonously stratified porous medium is explored by deriving a non-dimensional number, Fhp, from the macroscopic Darcian-based flow equation. The derived Fhp theoretically classifies the flow equation to be hyperbolic or parabolic, according to the hydraulic head gradient length scale, and the hydraulic conductivity slope and mean. This flow classification is explored numerically, while its effect on the transport is explored by Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT). The numerical simulations show the transition from hyperbolic to parabolic flow, which manifests in the LPT transition from advective to dispersive transport. This classification is also applied to an interpolation of tilled soil from the literature, showing that, indeed, there is a transition in the transport. These results indicate that in a monotonously stratified porous medium, very low conducting (impervious) formations may still allow unexpected contamination leakage, specifically for the parabolic case. This classification of the Fhp to the flow and transport pattern provides additional insight without solving the flow or transport equation only by knowing the hydraulic conductivity distribution.

Source: Entropy

DOI: 10.3390/e26110904

Authors: Yaniv Edery, Shaul Sorek

Institutions: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Language: English

Topic: Groundwater flow and contamination studies

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,955

Funder: Israel Science Foundation