SOLUTE TRANSPORT IN AGGREGATED POROUS-MEDIA - THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

Breakthrough curves (BTC's) for solute displacement through water-saturated columns of aggregated and non-aggregated porous media were measured at pore-water velocities varying over an order of magnitude (2 to 96 cm/hour). These BTC's were used to verify two conceptual solute transport models in which the pore-water was partitioned into inter- and intra-aggregate regions. In both models, convective-dispersive solute transport was assumed to be limited to the inter-aggregate pore-water region, while the intra-aggregate pore-water was assumed to behave as a diffusion sink/source for solute.