Scale dependent solute dispersion in porous media

Abstract

Scale dependency of solute dispersion in porous media is one of the major striking issues in simulating larger scale aquifers. There are numerous studies dedicated to development of the simulation models that represent heterogeneous real world aquifers. In this paper we investigated the ability of a stochastic solute transport model (SSTM) of capturing the scale dependency. Initially, flow profiles were visually compared for different flow lengths. Then a stochastic inverse method was used to estimate the corresponding dispersion coefficient (D) for each parameter combination of the stochastic model. The results reveal that SSTM is capable of simulating the scale effect of solute dispersion, and to some extent, they agree with the past literature. Dispersivity increases with the smaller flow lengths, and the rate of increase decreases and tends to reach an asymptotic value for larger scales for similar parameters of SSTM.