Comparison of methods for developing contaminant-particle size distributions for suspended sediment

摘要

Relationships between contaminant concentration and particle size distribution are required for modeling the transport of contaminated sediment. Standard methods, including the pipette and bottom withdrawal techniques, are unsatisfactory because of the lack of homogeneous separations of each size fraction, which results in uncertainty in the contaminant-particle size relation. In addition, the size fractions produced with these techniques do not contain enough mass for accurate contaminant analyses. To avoid these problems, an alternative method using a settling column and withdrawal times based on Stokes Law has been developed. Tests have been conducted using sediment samples contaminated with Cs-137 from a waste area at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The samples were separated into sand, coarse and fine silt, and clay-sized particles. The results for particle size distribution and associated contaminant concentrations were evaluated for the settling column, pipette, and bottom withdrawal methods. The settling column method provides homogeneous size fractions, larger aliquots of sediment for contaminant analysis, and is quicker in some cases and less complicated to perform than the other two methods.