Abstract

Model applicability to core-scale solute transport is evaluated using breakthrough data from column experiments conducted with conservative tracers tritium and sodium-22 , and the retarding solute uranium-232 . The three models considered are single-porosity, double-porosity with single-rate mobile-immobile mass-exchange, and the multirate model, which is a deterministic model that admits the statistics of a random mobile-immobile mass-exchange rate coefficient. The experiments were conducted on intact Culebra Dolomite core samples. Previously, data were analyzed using single-porosity and double-porosity models although the Culebra Dolomite is known to possess multiple types and scales of porosity, and to exhibit multirate mobile-immobile-domain mass transfer characteristics at field scale. The data are reanalyzed here and null-space Monte Carlo analysis is used to facilitate objective model selection. Prediction (or residual) bias is adopted as a measure of the model structural error. The analysis clearly shows single-porosity and double-porosity models are structurally deficient, yielding late-time residual bias that grows with time. On the other hand, the multirate model yields unbiased predictions consistent with the late-time slope diagnostic of multirate mass transfer. The analysis indicates the multirate model is better suited to describing core-scale solute breakthrough in the Culebra Dolomite than the other two models.

Disciplines

Environmental Sciences

Publisher statement

An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

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URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/nrm_fac/86