HOW DOES THE CONNECTIVITY OF HIGHER PERMEABILITY UNITS AFFECT THE 3-D CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT?

Stratal architecture affects the dispersion of mass in aquifers. The connectivity of higher permeability strata (sand) plays an important role. This role is being explored in computational research. Dispersion in aquifers with structured sands is being compared to the case of randomly distributed sands. In three-dimensional simulations of the structured sand within a finite domain, the sand cells percolate at lower volume fractions as compared to that in a random infinite domain (Guin and Ritzi, 2008). In current research, the effects of this percolation on dispersion are being quantified. Two dimensional, time-centered finite differences and particle tracking will be used for simulating three-dimensional transport. In results thus far, the residence time distribution in a domain with structured, percolating sands has a distinctly different character as compared to that in a random domain.