FLOW AND AMMONIUM TRANSPORT THROUGH VARIABLY SATURATED POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

Soil and groundwater contamination has been a major source of concern in recent decades as a result of anthropogenic activities. Toxic chemicals, viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens found in industrial effluents, sewage, sludge, and septic tanks are frequently disposed of into the subsurface through infiltration or recharge. Natural processes, agricultural practices, urban runoff, waste disposal practices, and industrial discharges, among other things, can have an impact on the quality of subsurface water. The most difficult task for a groundwater hydrologist is predicting the arrival times and spatial patterns of toxic levels of a waste substance beneath the ground. Prediction becomes more difficult as the heterogeneity and chemical properties of the solute and porous medium increase. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate and comprehend the behavior of contaminants in heterogeneous porous media using mathematical modeling and experimental techniques. Non-equilibrium conditions have been widely accepted in the literature to have a significant impact on solute transport at the field scale. Consequently, the current study focuses on solute transportation through experiments and the development of a model that can account for physical and sorption-related non-equilibrium in a variety of soil and flow conditions. Uniform flow and mobile immobile water flow and transport approaches are taken into consideration which involves the diffusive mass transfer between mobile and immobile partitioning within a porous medium.