A Numerical Study on Solute Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media

The solute transport in a two-dimensional heterogeneous porous medium is numerically studied by using a random walk particle tracking (RWPT) method. Lognormally isotropic hydraulic conductivity fields are generated by using the turning band methods with mean zero and four different values of standard deviation. The numerical transport experiments are carried out to investigate the large time and spatial effects of the variable pore velocity field on solute plumes. The behavior of the solute plume through numerical simulations is presented in terms of longitudinal and transverse spatial moments: displacement of center-of-mass, plume spread variance and skewness coefficient. It was observed that the dispersive behavior of the solute plume is strongly affected by the degree of heterogeneity in the flow domain.