Modeling Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport in Fractured Aquifers

摘要

The hybrid discrete fracture network/equivalent porous medium (DFN/EPM) model was selected for analysis and application to simulate a contaminated site in this study. The DFN/EPM was selected because it appeared to have the potential to aid decision making by remedial project managers at contaminated DoD fractured aquifer sites. This model can use data that are typically available at a site while incorporating the important processes relevant to describing contaminant transport in a fractured medium. The model was applied to simulate the operation of a pump-and-treat remedial action at a trichloroethene-contaminated fractured aquifer at Pease AFB. The model was able to simulate the salient characteristics of hydraulic and contaminant data collected at the site during operation of the remediation pump-and-treat system. The model was then used to evaluate the impact of various pump-and- treat system designs on contaminant containment at the site. Based on these model simulations, the potential benefits to site managers of using the DFN/EPM approach to model groundwater flow and contaminant transport at fractured aquifer sites were demonstrated.