Chemical transport associated with discharge of contaminated fine particles to a steady open-channel flow

In this paper, an analytical study on the advective-dispersive transport of a chemical contaminant resulting from the discharge of contaminated fine solid particles into a two-dimensional, steady and uniform turbulent open-channel flow is presented. Because of sorptive exchange, the transport of the chemical cloud is affected by that of the suspended particulates. Such a relationship has so far not been explicitly established by intuitive arguments. The effective transport equations are formally derived by an extended method of homogenization. It is found that over a long time scale the fall velocity will delay the sediment advection, and the advection velocity and dispersion coefficient for the chemical transport will change with space and time according to the local sediment concentration. Numerical results confirm that the centers of mass of the sediment and dissolved phase clouds are not advancing at the same speed, and the dispersion of the chemical is enhanced by the local retardation factor. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(00)01501-4].published_or_final_versio