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Evolving interface between clean and nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL)‐contaminated regions in two‐dimensional porous media
Author(s) -
Imhoff Paul T.,
Farthing Matthew W.,
Gleyzer Simon N.,
Miller Cass T.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2001wr000290
Subject(s) - dissolution , porous medium , permeability (electromagnetism) , scaling , materials science , fractal , saturation (graph theory) , porosity , homogeneous , chemical physics , chemical engineering , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , composite material , geometry , engineering , mathematics , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , combinatorics , membrane
We studied the dissolution of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) at residual saturation in two‐dimensional systems using physical and numerical experiments. In all cases, preferential dissolution pathways developed in the NAPL‐contaminated regions. A permeability feedback mechanism led to the formation of centimeter‐scale dissolution fingers in homogeneous porous media, while fingers up to 1 order of magnitude wider formed in media with heterogeneous distributions of intrinsic permeability k , when σ 2 (ln k ) was large. The structure of the interface between the NAPL‐contaminated and NAPL‐free regions was examined as dissolution progressed. In all cases the interface was a self‐affine fractal. The scaling relationship of Family and Vicsek [1985] fitted the interface data from the numerical simulations reasonably well.