Impact of Particle Size Distribution of Colloidal Particles on Contaminant Transport in Porous Media

The presence of retained colloidal particles causes the retardation of contaminant transport when the contaminant is favorably adsorbed to colloidal particles. Although the particle size distribution affects the retention behavior of colloidal particles, the impact of particle size distribution on contaminant transport has not been reported to date. This study investigates the impact of the particle size distribution of the colloidal particles on contaminant transport through numerical simulation by representing the particle size distribution as a lognormal distribution function. In addition, the bed efficiency and contaminant saturation of simulated breakthrough curves were calculated, and a contaminant transport model with the Langmuir isotherm for the reaction between the contaminant-sand and contaminant-colloidal particle was introduced and validated with experimental data. The simulated breakthrough curves, bed efficiency, and contaminant saturation indicated that an increase in the mean and standard deviation of the particle size distribution causes the retardation of contaminant transport.