Impacts of Spatio-Variability of Source Morphology on Field-Scale Predictions of Subsurface Contaminant Transport

摘要

This research project investigated the coupled effects of uncertain contaminant source morphology (organic immiscible liquids distribution and composition) and aquifer properties on predicting solute transport in saturated groundwater systems contaminated with residual Organic Immiscible Liquids (OIL's). Research efforts focused on the development of multiple stochastic inverse models for characterizing contaminant fluxes in the near field and for characterizing NAPL distributions within source. In addition, work was conducted on the forward stochastic modeling, that is, to evaluate individual and collective impacts of uncertain spatially and temporally variable source morphological characteristics on subsurface solute transport predictions. The study also involved 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional experimental efforts to study bench-scale and intermediate-scale uncertainties associate with OIL sources. These studies focused on describing dissolution from multi-component OIL's at varying residual fluid saturations and distributions, and the characterization of OIL sources using partitioning and interfacial tracers. As a final component of the project, the various stochastic models developed were evaluated using data from the pilot-scale field experiments conducted at Hill AFB, Columbus AFB, and Base Borden, Ontario, Canada. Data derived from partitioning/interfacial tracers and far-field dissolved OIL component distributions were used with the stochastic models to characterize OIL sources at each site.