Mass transport subject to time-dependent flow with nonuniform sorption in porous media

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Nov;80(5 Pt 2):056301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.056301. Epub 2009 Nov 4.

Abstract

We address the description of solutes flow with trapping processes in porous media. Starting from a small-scale model for tracer particle trajectories, we derive the corresponding governing equations for the concentration of the mobile and immobile phases within a fractal mobile-immobile model approach. We show that this formulation is fairly general and can easily take into account nonconstant coefficients and in particular space-dependent sorption rates. The transport equations are solved numerically and a comparison with Monte Carlo particle-tracking simulations of spatial contaminant profiles and breakthrough curves is proposed, so as to illustrate the obtained results.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Biophysics / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Fractals
  • Models, Statistical
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Movement
  • Normal Distribution
  • Porosity
  • Probability
  • Time Factors