Author(s)

H. Keijzer & S.E.A.T.M. van der Zee

Abstract

Dispersion effects on transport with biodegradation in heterogeneous porous media H. Keijzer & S.E.A.T.M. van der Zee Wageningen Agricultural University, Department of Environmental Science, P.O.Box 8005, 6700 EC Wageningen, The Netherlands E-mail: henriette. keijzer@bodhyg. benp. wan. nl Abstract In studies concerning modelling reactive transport of solute on field scale, the solute is spread by advection, diffusion and dispersion. In numerical simulations often macro dispersivities are used instead of pore scale dispersivities. This is due to discretisation constraints for numerical dispersion and stability and to avoid excessively long computation times. We show that the choice of pore scale or macro dispersivities affects the spatial moments of the front affected by non-linear biodegradation. Hence, using a macro dispersivity is generally not correct. 1 Introduction At many sites, ground water is contaminated with organic contami- nants. They spread in the groun

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