Studies on Transport of Reactive and Non-reactive Elements in Fractured Media

Abstract

In recent years, the focus has been shifted to groundwater quality because the consumptive lifestyle has been the reason for deterioration of groundwater. The contaminant transport in the subsurface has to be studied to know the extent of contaminant transport and also know the final magnitude of contaminant. Normally, these contaminants travel through a saturated or unsaturated porous media and sometimes fractured till clays or silts are encountered in the surroundings. The contaminant transport is very different when it has to travel through a fractured media as the hydraulic conductivity is high in the fractures even though the porosity is low, and hence makes it a very important topic of discussion. In the present study, a numerical model for contaminant transport in fractured porous media has been presented. Transport process in single fracture–matrix system is described by two coupled equations, one for fracture and other for matrix. Analysis is performed using meshfree method called element-free Galerkin method. A FORTRAN programme has been developed to obtain numerical solution, and it is validated with the results in the literature. Overall, the results predicted are found in good agreement. Parametric study has been performed to examine the transport of different reactive and non-reactive elements in the fractured media by varying their dispersivity, retardation factor and dispersion coefficient. Parameters of fracture like fracture thickness and hydraulic conductivity shall be varied to observe the transport of these elements in fractured porous media.