Validation of Stochastic Flow and Transport Models for Unsaturated Soils: A Comprehensive Field Study.

摘要

The document describes a comprehensive field study for evaluating the effects of site variability on flow and transport of contaminants in the unsaturated zone. The field study is designed to measure the variability of key hydraulic properties within the unsaturated zone of an undisturbed field soil. The stochastic model of Gelhar was tested using the field and lysimeter test data. In the model, the fluctuations of measured hydraulic parameters are assumed to represent statistically homogeneous random fields. The mean values of these parameters and their covariance functions provide sufficient statistical characterization to evaluate the flow and transport processes at the site on the basis of these measured hydraulic properties. The data will be useful in testing other models for performance assessments of low-level waste sites and in addressing the effects of spatial variability on transport of contaminants in the unsaturated zone.