Understanding the processes involved in the transport of dissolved gas plumes in groundwater aquifers is essential for comprehending the effect that these transport processes can have on site characterization and remedial design applications. Previous laboratory and field studies have indicated that dissolved gas transport in groundwater can be greatly affected by the presence of even small amounts of trapped gas in the pore space of an aquifer. Recently, Fry et al. (1995) reported an increase in retardation factors R (where R=pore water velocity/dissolved gas velocity) for dissolved oxygen with increasing amounts of trapped gas. Fry showed that the retardation factor for a dissolved gas can be predicted using a relationship between the dimensionless Henry's Law constant for the dissolved gas, the volumetric gas content (i.e., the fraction of the total volume occupied by trapped gas), and the volumetric water content (i.e., the fraction of total volume occupied by water). In their experiments, Fry et al. (1995) found this relationship in an equilibrium model accurately predicted observed retardation factors for dissolved oxygen when the volumetric gas content was small, but underpredicted retardation factors for larger volumetric gas contents. Also, predicted breakthrough curves for dissolved oxygen obtained by incorporating this relationship into the advection-dispersion equation did not match the shape of experimentally observed breakthrough curves. The experimental curves were asymmetrical with long tails indicating that the local equilibrium assumption is inaccurate and suggesting that mass transfer of oxygen between the aqueous and trapped gas phases is diffusion limited.
In an effort to gain further understanding of this process, a kinetic model was developed for dissolved gas transport that includes a diffusion type expression for the rate of gas transfer between the mobile aqueous and trapped gas phases. The model was tested in a series of transport experiments conducted in sand packed columns with varying amounts and composition of trapped gas. The kinetic model was found to better fit the shape of dissolved oxygen breakthrough and elution curves than the equilibrium model of Fry et al. (1995).
This model was then extended to the case of two-dimensions to simulate dissolved
gas transport in the presence of trapped gas under conditions that approximate injection and extraction wells used to distribute dissolved gases in an aquifer (e.g. to promote in situ bioremediation processes or to perform a dissolved gas tracer test). We then compared these predicted concentrations with measured concentrations obtained in a series of dissolved gas transport experiments in a large-scale physical aquifer model using two dissolved gases (oxygen and hydrogen) with very different physical properties. The model could accurately fit the development and movement of these plumes providing that key parameters, the amount of trapped gas and the effective mass transfer coefficient, were adjusted between the injection and drift stages. / Graduation date: 1997
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34240 |
| Date | 13 September 1996 |
| Creators | Donaldson, Jeremy H. |
| Contributors | Istok, Jonathan D. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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