Physics of DNAPL Migration and Remediation in the Presence of Heterogeneities

The goal of our research is to develop a fundamental quantitative understanding of the role of physical heterogeneities on DNAPL migration and remediation in aquifers. Such understanding is critical to cost effectively identify the location of the subsurface zone of contamination and design remediation schemes focused on removing the source of the contamination, the DNAPL itself. To reach this goal, the following objectives for the proposed research are defined: Objective 1: Develop fundamental understanding of the physics of DNAPL migration processes within heterogeneous porous media: (a) Conduct a suite of two-dimensional physical experiments within controlled and systematically varied heterogeneous porous media at scales up to one meter. Vary system parameters to consider a range of capillary and bond numbers within these heterogeneous porous structures. (b) Develop a new DNAPL migration model based on an up-scaling of invasion percolation (UIP) to model the migration process. Compare the model predictions to experimental results. Accomplishing objective 1 provides a series of experiments against which we will be able to evaluate the validity of existing multi-phase flow theory as formulated in both percolation codes and in continuum flow codes. These experimental results will also provide new insights into DNAPL migration behavior. Development of the UIP model will provide an exciting alternative to continuum multi-phase flow codes since UIP offers several advantages for modeling DNAPL migration. The UIP model is fast, allowing for: (1) modeling in three dimensions; (2) the incorporation of much more geologic detail; and, (3) its use in probabilistic modeling by way of Monte Carlo techniques. Objective 2: Develop fundamental understanding of the physics of DNAPL remediation processes within heterogeneous porous media: Conduct a suite of physical experiments within controlled and systematically varied heterogeneous porous media at scales up to one meter that consider several remediation treatments. Accomplishing objective 2 will allow us to consider the efficacy of several promising DNAPL remediation techniques under realistic yet well-controlled conditions. We consider this work to be of the type of broad-based, initial studies needed to better understand the intricacies associated with various remedial processes. We expect that the results of this work will be used to focus subsequent research on those remedial approaches or combination of approaches that appear to offer the most promise