CONTAMINANT MIGRATION IN A REGULAR 2-DIMENSIONAL OR 3-DIMENSIONAL FRACTURED NETWORK - REACTIVE CONTAMINANTS

A semi‐analytic solution for the migration of dilute reactive contaminant species in a fractured medium having a one‐, two‐ or three‐dimensional fracture network is presented. The application of the technique to practical problems is discussed and illustrated by examples. The effects of sorption in the matrix and on the surface of the fractures are considered for a range of parameters. It is demonstrated that the synergistic interaction of the various parameters is such that the effect of changing a single variable may not be immediately obvious and a designer should perform computations for the range of expected parameters to determine the maximum impact. For example, it is shown that it is not necessarily conservative to consider only one‐dimensional or only three‐dimensional diffusion into the matrix; which of these cases is most critical will depend on the values of other parameters. It is also shown that an effective leachate collection system may significantly reduce the impact of those contaminants which do escape into the fractured media. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd