Solute Transport
and Reaction
 
 
1) Conservative tracer. 2) Predicted product for A+B→C reaction. Very heterogeneous. (conductivity contrast = 1800 )
  1. • Lucy Meigs (formerly at Sandia Labs)
Collaborators: Doctoral Students: Publications:
  1. • Brendan Zinn (now at USGS)
Roy Haggerty, Brian Wood (OSU)
  1. •  Oates, P. M., and C. F. Harvey,  "A Colorimetric Reaction to Quantify Fluid Mixing, "Experiments  in Fluids, in press.
  2. •  Oates, P. M., C. Castenson, C. F. Harvey, M. Polz, and P. Culligan, "Shedding light on reactive microbial transport in porous media: Experimental visualization and numerical modeling of Pseudomonas fluorescens 5RL bioluminescence," Contaminant Hydrology, May, 2005.
  3. •  Zinn, B., C. F. Harvey, L. Meigs, R. Haggerty, W. Peplinski, and C.Freiherr von Schwerin, "Experimental Visualization of Solute Transport and Mass Transfer Processes in Spatially Heterogeneous Porous Media," Environmental Science and Technology, 38(14), 2004.
  4. • Haggerty, R., Harvey, C.F., Freiherr von Schwerin, C., Meigs, L., "What controls the apparent timescale of solute mass transfer in aquifers and soils? A comparison of diverse experimental results," Water Resources Research, doi: 10.1029/2002WR001716, 2004.
  5. •      Hellerich, L., Oates, P., Johnson, C., Nikolaidis, N., Harvey, C. F., and Gschwend, P.," "Bromide transport before, during, and after colloid mobilization in push-pull tests and the implications for changes in aquifer properties," Water Resources Research , 39(10), 1301, doi:10.1029/2003WR002112, 2003.
  6. •  Zinn, B., and Harvey, C. F., "When good statistical models Of aquifer heterogeneity go bad: A comparison of flow, dispersion and mass transfer in Multigaussian and Connected Conductivity Fields," Water Resources Research, 39(3) ,1051, 2003.
  7. •      Gramling, C., Harvey, C.F. and Meigs, L., "Reactive transport in porous media: a comparison of model prediction with laboratory visualization," Environmental Science and Technology, 36, 2002.
  1. • Peter Oates
Isoconcentration surface of MADE bromide plume
Conservative tracer.
Moderately heterogeneous material.      
(hydraulic conductivity contrast = 300 )
Conservative tracer.
Very heterogeneous material.      
(hydraulic conductivity contrast = 1800 )
Reactive Transport in Porous Media Filled Laboratory Chambers
Conservative Transport in Heterogeneous Media: Homogeneous Media:
Tracer
(1) Observed tracer
(2) Observed mean (vertical average) concentration, and mean predicted by ADE.
(1) Observed tracer
(2) Observed (vertical average) mean concentration, and mean predicted by CFM, where the variance was determined from the reactive transport experiment.
Tiron/Molybdate product
(1) Observed product
(2) Observed (vertical average) mean product concentration, and mean predicted by ADE.
(1)  Predicted tracer      
      by advective-
      dispersive eq.
(2)  Observed tracer
(1)  Predicted tiron/
      molybdate product
(2)Observed product
(1)  Observed tracer
(2)  Modeled pore-scale
     concentration
     distribution by CFM.
(1)  Observed product
(2)  Modeled pore-scale
     product distribution
     by CFM.
(1) Observed product
(2) Observed (vertical
      average) mean product
      concentration, and mean
      predicted by CFM
(3) CFM modeled product
      variance, observed product
      variance, and conservative
      tracer variance.

Horizontal Chamber.  Densities Equal
Horizontal Chamber.  Densities Differ
(Image rotated
and movie truncated)
Movies (Click thumbnail images to watch)
Click a thumbnail image
Conservative tracer.
Mildly heterogeneous material.      
(hydraulic conductivity contrast = 6)
Conservative tracer.
Mildly heterogeneous material.      
(conductivity contrast = 6)
 
ADE fit to the mean (vertical average), and observed mean and deviation.
Conservative tracer.
Mildly heterogeneous material.      
(hydraulic conductivity contrast = 6)
 
ADE fit, and observed.
Conservative tracer.
Moderately heterogeneous material.      
(hydraulic conductivity contrast = 300)
 
Advection/dispersion/mass-transfer fit to the mobile solute (outside the blebs), and observed concentration field.
Blebs blacked out
Conservative tracer.
Mildly heterogeneous material.      
(conductivity contrast = 6)
 
Beta and CFM model fits to distribution.  Colored squares indicate the location of the the vertical section for the distribution.
Conservative tracer.
Moderately heterogeneous.      
(conductivity contrast = 300)
 
Beta and CFM model fits to distribution.  Colored squares indicate the location of the vertical section for the distribution.

Tiron/Molybdate Reaction.
 
Mildly heterogeneous material.      
(conductivity contrast = 6)
Predicted by ADE
Observed concentration field, concentration fluctuation field (mean removed) and partial derivatives of the fluctuation field in the transverse and longitudinal directions.
 
Conservative tracer.
Mildly heterogeneous.  
 
Observed and modeled.
 
CFM fit to the variance.  
Click a thumbnail image
Product.
Mildly heterogeneous.      
 
Predicted product.
 
Predicted variance.  
Product.
Mildly heterogeneous.      
 
Observed and modeled product distributions.
Predicted product  for
       A+B→C reaction.
Moderately heterogeneous.      (conductivity contrast = 300)
The concentration of the reactant in the chamber is 10x that of the reactant entering the chamber.
Observed product
 
Predicted product assuming complete pore-scale mixing
    The results of our lab-scale visualization experiments are shown as movies below.  Click on a thumbnail, and the movie will play.  However, to understand these moving images, you will need to read our papers!  Zinn et al 2004 describes the experimental setup.  Oates and Harvey 2006 describes the chemistry for the reactive transport experiments.   The analysis of the reactive transport experiments is given in two working papers that we will post on the web site this fall.  
Reactive Transport