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Finite volume/mixed finite element analysis of pollutant transport and bioremediation in heterogeneous saturated aquifers
Author(s) -
Gallo Claudio,
Manzini Gianmarco
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.401
Subject(s) - aquifer , finite element method , environmental remediation , pollutant , bioremediation , finite volume method , advection , environmental science , dispersion (optics) , environmental engineering , soil science , contamination , geotechnical engineering , petroleum engineering , groundwater , mechanics , chemistry , geology , thermodynamics , physics , ecology , organic chemistry , optics , biology
The adoption of a suitable pumping–injecting well network and the human enhancement of the activity of soil bacteria, whose metabolism contributes to degrade and transform many pollutants in non‐toxic substances, may be crucial in the process of remediation of contaminated soils. Organic contaminant transport in a subsurface aquifer and its biological degradation kinetics is numerically addressed by using a four contaminant species model. A numerical approach is proposed, that is based on a cell‐centre finite volume method for the system of advection–dispersion equations of contaminants with a mixed‐hybrid finite element method for the solution of a single‐phase Darcy's equation. The effectiveness of the method and its accuracy in retaining the main physical properties of the continuous mathematical model is illustrated by simulating the time evolution of contaminant concentrations in a set of realistic scenarios. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.