Simplified Approach to Particle Tracking Methods for Contaminant Transport

Hathhorn, Wade E.

doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9429(1997)123:12(1157)

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Mass transport was calculated using a stream tube method, which is a fast method for approximating steady state mass transport by advection from a persistent source such as a NAPL pool [ Prickett et al , 1981; Hathhorn , 1997; Vollmayr et al , 1997; Hassan et al , 1997]. In this application, the stream tube method was 500 to 5000 times faster than the method‐of‐characteristics solution in the code MT3D [ Zheng , 1992].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of heterogeneity on influent and effluent concentrations from horizontal permeable reactive barriers

Elder

Benson

Eykholt³

2002

Water Resources Research

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[1] Numerical models were used to evaluate how aquifer and barrier heterogeneity affect influent and effluent concentrations for permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). Spatial variability in the reaction rate constant k r and hydraulic conductivity K P of the PRB and hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer (in terms of variations in the mean m lnK , standard deviation s lnK , and correlation scale l of the logarithm of hydraulic conductivity (ln K)) were considered. Spatial variability of k r and K P was found to change influent and effluent concentrations by less than an order of magnitude. Spatial continuity in hydraulic conductivity parallel to flow, described by the correlation length l x , has a modest effect, with greater continuity yielding higher effluent concentrations. Decreasing the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer (i.e., decreasing m lnK ) does not affect influent concentrations but decreases the median effluent concentrations and broadens the distribution of effluent concentration due to increased residence time in the PRB. Increasing the variability of the aquifer hydraulic conductivity (i.e., increasing s lnK ) decreases the median influent concentration and broadens the distribution of influent concentrations due to additional dispersion caused by greater heterogeneity. Greater variability in aquifer hydraulic conductivity also results in a higher median effluent concentrations and a broader distribution of effluent concentration. Comparison of effluent concentrations predicted using a one-dimensional deterministic model and the threedimensional numerical model shows that longer residence times and lower effluent concentrations are usually predicted by the one-dimensional model. The results indicate that designers should carefully consider factors of safety used for design, perhaps opting for a more conservative approach until more guidance on designing amidst aquifer heterogeneity is available.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of heterogeneity on influent and effluent concentrations from horizontal permeable reactive barriers

Elder

Benson

Eykholt³

2002

Water Resources Research

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“…(1) represents the random displacement of the particles. Hathhorn [4] has demonstrated the equivalence of results using the random number z normally as well as uniformly distributed. If one adopts a uniform distribution, this may imply a considerable computational time saving.…”

Section: Random Walk Particle-tracking Methods For Non-homogeneous Turmentioning

confidence: 95%

Particle-tracking method applied to transport problems in water bodies

Mascarenhas¹,

Trento²

2006

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 99

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In this work a particle-tracking model was implemented and applied to simulate the instantaneous injection of a dye tracer in the Setubal Lagoon, Santa Fe, Argentina. It focused on the study of the water quality problem generated in point sources of contaminated water through a rainfall drainage system. This problem is difficult to treat with the so-called Eulerian methods. The interpolation for the field velocity, the number of particles used in the simulations, the representation of boundary conditions and the mesh size for the calculation of concentrations are discussed. A field experiment using tracers is described in order to compare the numerical results and the simulations with real data. The diffusion coefficients calculated from the experiment and the hydrodynamic modelling give the necessary inputs for the simulations using the particle-tracking modelling of the measured four clouds. The results support the main advantages of this method in terms of strict mass conservation, good representation of high concentration gradients and point sources and as a consequence, a good representation of the maximum concentration and the general form of the clouds.

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“…Particle-tracking is a useful tool to describe particle or contaminant movement in environmental systems [4][5][6] offering computational efficiency and simplicity compared to alternative numerical methods [7]. The particle-tracking method does not exhibit any numerical dispersion in the classical sense [4,8] and the computational effort is proportional to the number of particles [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%