Analysis of caisson transport experiments by travel time approach

Abstract

The transport experiments conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory in an intermediate-scale caisson are described. The results suggest that the solute spreading pattern has been dominated by the effect of spatial variability of hydraulic properties. A stochastic model of horizontally varying velocity distribution is employed in order to interpret the concentration data in terms of travel time distribution. A satisfactory match between the measured solute mass cross-sectional transfer in saturated flow and model is achieved for a standard deviation of the logconductivity of 1.2. The model may serve for interpretation of transport in unsaturated flow and for reactive solutes. 14 refs., 7 figs