Solute transport and geochemical modeling of the coastal quaternary aquifer, Delta Dahab Basin, South Sinai, Egypt

The wadi dahab delta is in a dry, arid coastal zone within Egypt’s south Sinai Peninsula’s eastern portion. The primary water source is the Quaternary coastal alluvial aquifer. The groundwater salinity varies from 890to 8213 mg/L, with a mean value of 3417 mg/L. The dissolved major ions have been used to calculate the seawater mixing index(SWMI) using a linear equation that discriminates the groundwater mostly affected by water–rock interaction(SWMI 1>) and other samples mixed with Seawater(SWMI < 1). The isotopic composition of groundwater for specifically chosen groundwater samples ranges from-0.645‰ to +5.212‰ for δ^(18)O and from-9.582‰ to + 22.778‰ for δ^(2)H, where the seawater represented by a Red Sea water sample(δ^(18)O + 1.64‰-δ^(2)H + 9.80‰) and reject brine water are considerably enriched the isotopic groundwater values. The geochemical NETPATH model constrained by the dissolved significant ions, isotopes, and the rock aquifer forming minerals as phases indicate the mixing percent with the seawater ranges from 9% to 97% of seawater from 91% to 3% of original recharge water. According to the SEAWAT 3-D flow models, seawater has penetrated the Northeastern Dahab delta aquifer, with the intrusion zone extending1500 m inland. The salt dissolution, upwelling of saline water, recharge from the upstream mountain block, and seawater encroachment are the primary aspects contributing to the deterioration of groundwater quality. These findings may have significance for effective groundwater withdrawal management in arid locations worldwide with similar hydrogeological systems.

Modeling impact of culture facilities on hydrodynamics and solute transport in marine aquaculture waters of North Yellow Sea

An increasing number of marine aquaculture facilities have been placed in shallow bays and open sea,which might significantly affect hydrodynamic and solute transport processes in marine aquaculture waters.In this study,a coupled hydrodynamic and solute transport model was developed with high-resolution schemes in marine aquaculture waters based on depth-averaged shallow water equations.A new expression of drag force was incorporated into the momentum equations to express the resistance of suspended culture cages.The coupled model was used to simulate the effect of suspended structures on tidal currents and the movement of a contaminant cloud in the marine aquaculture of the North Yellow Sea,China.The simulation results showed a low-velocity area appearing inside the aquaculture cage area,with a maximum reduction rate of velocity close to 45%under high-density culture.The results also showed that tidal currents were sensitive to the density of suspended cages,the length of cages,and the drag coefficients of cages.The transport processes of pollutants inside aquaculture facilities were inhibited away from the vicinity of the culture cage area because of the diminished tidal currents.Therefore,the suspended cages significantly affected the transport processes of pollutants in the coastal aquaculture waters.Furthermore,the reduced horizontal velocity significantly decreased the food supply for the aquaculture areas from the surrounding sea.

Impact of stress on solute transport in a fracture network: A comparison study

This paper compares numerical modeling of the effect of stress on solute transport （advection and matrix diffusion） in fractured rocks in which fracture apertures are correlated with fracture lengths. It is mainly motivated by the performance and safety assessments of underground radioactive waste repositories. Five research teams used different approaches to model stress/deformation, flow and transport pro- cesses, based on either discrete fracture network or equivalent continuum models. The simulation results derived by various teams generally demonstrated that rock stresses could significantly influence solute transport processes through stress-induced changes in fracture apertures and associated changes in per- meability. Reasonably good agreement was achieved regarding advection and matrix diffusion given the same fracture network, while some observed discrepancies could be explained by different mechanical or transport modeling approaches.

Mathematical model for coupled reactive flow and solute transport during heap bioleaching of copper sulfide

Based on the momentum and mass conservation equations, a comprehensive model of heap bioleaching process is developed to investigate the interaction between chemical reactions, solution flow, gas flow, and solute transport within the leaching system. The governing equations are solved numerically using the COMSOL Multiphysics software for the coupled reactive flow and solute transport at micro-scale, meso-scale and macro-scale levels. At or near the surface of ore particle, the acid concentration is relatively higher than that in the central area, while the concentration gradient decreases after 72 d of leaching. The flow simulation between ore particles by combining X-ray CT technology shows that the highest velocity in narrow pore reaches 0.375 m/s. The air velocity within the dump shows that the velocity near the top and side surface is relatively high, which leads to the high oxygen concentration in that area. The coupled heat transfer and liquid flow process shows that the solution can act as an effective remover from the heap, dropping the highest temperature from 60 to 38 ℃. The reagent transfer coupled with solution flow is also analyzed. The results obtained allow us to obtain a better understanding of the fundamental physical phenomenon of the bioleaching process.

Impact of normal stress-induced closure on laboratory-scale solute transport in a natural rock fracture

The impact of normal stress-induced closure on fluid flow and solute transport in a single rock fracture is demonstrated in this study.The fracture is created from a measured surface of a granite rock sample.The Bandis model is used to calculate the fracture closure due to normal stress,and the fluid flow is simulated by solving the Reynold equation.The Lagrangian particle tracking method is applied to modeling the advective transport in the fracture.The results show that the normal stress significantly affects fluid flow and solute transport in rock fractures.It causes fracture closure and creates asperity contact areas,which significantly reduces the effective hydraulic aperture and enhances flow channeling.Consequently,the reduced aperture and enhanced channeling affect travel time distributions.In particular,the enhanced channeling results in enhanced first arriving and tailing behaviors for solute transport.The fracture normal stiffness correlates linearly with the 5th and 95th percentiles of the normalized travel time.The finding from this study may help to better understand the stress-dependent solute transport processes in natural rock fractures.

Simulation of solute transportation within porous particles during the bioleaching process

A mathematical model, accounting for the sulfuric acid and ferric ions diffusion and the copper sulfide mineral leaching process, was developed for an ore particle by considering its porous structure. It was simulated with the simulation tool COMSOL Multiphysics. The simulation results show that the highest acid and ferric concentrations near the particle surface are apparent, while the concentrations in the central particle increase slightly as the less-porous ore core with low permeability prevents the oxidation from penetrating. The extraction of the mineral near the particle surface is the maximum, mainly because of ample sulfuric acid, ferric ions, bacteria, and oxygen available for the leaching process. Because of low oxidation concentration in the central part of the particle, the reaction rate and copper sulphide conversion are small. The simulation shows good agreement with the experimental results.

Solute transport characteristics of a deep soil profile in the Loess Plateau,China

Understanding solute transport behaviors of deep soil profile in the Loess Plateau is helpful for ecological construction and agricultural production improvement. In this study, solute transport processes of a deep soil profile were measured by a conservative tracer experiment using 25 undisturbed soil cores （20 cm long and 7 cm diameter for each） continuously sampled from the surface downward to the depth of 500 cm in the Loess Plateau of China. The solute transport breakthrough curves （BTCs） were analyzed in terms of the convection-dispersion equation （CDE） and the mobile-immobile model （MIM）. Average pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient （or effective dispersion coefficient） were calculated using the CDE and MIM. Basic soil properties and water infiltration parameters were also determined to explore their influence on the solute transport parameters. Both pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient （or effective dispersion coefficient） generally decreased with increasing depth, and the dispersivity fluctuated along the soil profile. There was a good linear correlation between log-transformed pore-water velocity and dispersion coefficient, with a slope of about 1.0 and an average dispersivity of 0.25 for the entire soil profile. Generally speaking, the soil was more homogeneous along the soil profile. Our results also show that hydrodynamic dispersion is the dominant mechanism of solute transport of loess soils in the study area.

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of solute transport in a single rough fracture

In this study, the lattice Boltzmann method （LBM） was used to simulate the solute transport in a single rough fracture. The self-affine rough fracture wall was generated with the successive random addition method. The ability of the developed LBM to simulate the solute transport was validated by Taylor dispersion. The effect of fluid velocity on the solute transport in a single rough fracture was investigated using the LBM. The breakthrough curves （BTCs） for continuous injection sources in rough fractures were analyzed and discussed with different Reynolds numbers （Re）. The results show that the rough frac~＇e wall leads to a large fluid velocity gradient across the aperture. Consequently, there is a broad distribution of the immobile region along the rough fracture wall. This distribution of the immobile region is very sensitive to the Re and fracture geometry, and the immobile region is enlarged with the increase of Re and roughness. The concentration of the solute front in the mobile region increases with the Re. Furthermore, the Re and roughness have significant effects on BTCs, and the slow solute molecule exchange between the mobile and immobile regions results in a long breakthrough tail for the rough fracture. This study also demonstrates that the developed LBM can be effective in studying the solute transport in a rough fracture.

A multiscale 3D finite element analysis of fluid/solute transport in mechanically loaded bone

The transport of fluid, nutrients, and signaling molecules in the bone lacunar-canalicular system （LCS） is critical for osteocyte survival and function. We have applied the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching （FRAP） approach to quantify load-induced fluid and solute transport in the LCS in situ, but the measurements were limited to cortical regions 30-50 μm underneath the periosteum due to the constrains of laser penetration. With this work, we aimed to expand our understanding of load-induced fluid and solute transport in both trabecular and cortical bone using a multiscaled image-based finite element analysis （FEA） approach. An intact murine tibia was first re-constructed from microCT images into a three-dimensional （3D） linear elastic FEA model, and the matrix deformations at various locations were calculated under axial loading. A segment of the above 3D model was then imported to the biphasic poroelasticity analysis platform （FEBio） to predict load-induced fluid pressure fields, and interstitial solute/fluid flows through LCS in both cortical and trabecular regions. Further, secondary flow effects such as the shear stress and/or drag force acting on osteocytes, the presumed mechano-sensors in bone, were derived using the previously developed ultrastructural model of Brinkman flow in the canaliculi. The material properties assumed in the FEA models were validated against previously obtained strain and FRAP transport data measured on the cortical cortex. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of this computational approach in estimating the fluid flux in the LCS and the cellular stimulation forces （shear and drag forces） for osteocytes in any cortical and trabecular bone locations, allowing further studies of how the activation of osteocytes correlates with in vivo functional bone formation. The study provides a promising platform to reveal potential cellular mechanisms underlying the anabolic power of exercises and physical activities in treating patients with skeletal deficiencies.

Determination of groundwater solute transport parameters in finite element modelling using tracer injection and withdrawal testing data

The groundwater tracer injection and withdrawal tests are often carried out for the determination of aquifer solute transport parameters.However,the parameter analyses encounter a great difficulty due to the radial flow nature and the variability of the temporal boundary conditions.An adaptive methodology for the determination of groundwater solute transport parameters using tracer injection and withdrawal test data had been developed and illustrated through an actual case.The methodology includes the treatment of the tracer boundary condition at the tracer injection well,the normalization of tracer concentration,the groundwater solute transport finite element modelling and the method of least squares to optimize the parameters.An application of this methodology was carried out in a field test in the South of Hanoi city.The tested aquifer is Pleistocene aquifer,which is a main aquifer and has been providing domestic water supply to the city since the French time.Effective porosity of 0.31,longitudinal dispersivity of 2.2 m,and hydrodynamic dispersion coefficients from D=220 m^(2)/d right outside the pumping well screen to D=15.8 m^(2)/d right outside the tracer injection well screen have been obtained for the aquifer at the test site.The minimal sum of squares of the differences between the observed and model normalized tracer concentration is 0.00119,which is corresponding to the average absolute difference between observed and model normalized concentrations of 0.0355(while 1 is the worst and 0 is the best fit).

Unsaturated flow and solute transport in a porous column using spherical ore particles

This paper dealt with the development of a two-dimensional （2D） mathematical model for column leaching and confirmed the important simulation parameters through experiment. The unsaturated state of the variably saturated flow column and the solute transport of copper ions were studied during leaching. The fluid flow problem was handled using the Richards equation on the premise of an ambient pressure column air, where the van Genuchten formulas were applied to define the nonlinear relationships of pressure head with the retention and permeability properties. The ore column permeability test gave a varied hydraulic conductivity, which was analyzed in the model. In the solute transport problem, the copper ion concentration was solved using the advection-diffusion-reaction equation whose reaction term was determined by the joint analysis of experimental copper leaching rate and the shrinking core model. Particle-and column-scale leaching tests were carried out to illustrate the difference and connection of copper extraction in both processes. This fluid flow and solute transport cou-pled model was determined through the finite element method using the numerical simulation software, COMSOL Multiphysics.

Impact of Soil Water Flux on Vadose Zone Solute Transport Parameters

The transport processes of solutes in two soil columns filled with undisturbed soil material collected from an unsaturated sandy aquifer formation in Belgium subjected to a variable upper boundary condition were identified from breakthrough curves measured by means of time domain reflectometry (TDR). Solute breakthrough was measured with 3 TDR probes inserted into each soil column at three different depths at a 10 minutes time interval. In addition, soil water content and pressure head were measured at 3 different depths. Analytical solute transport models were used to estimate the solute dispersion coefficient and average pore-water velocity from the observed breakthrough curves. The results showed that the analytical solutions were suitable in fitting the observed solute transport. The dispersion coefficient was found to be a function of the soil depth and average pore-water velocity, imposed by the soil water flux. The mobile moisture content on the other hand was not correlated with the average pore-water velocity and the dispersion coefficient.

Experimental investigation on rainfall infiltration and solute transport in layered porous and fractured media

Layered structures with upper porous and lower fractured media are widely distributed in the world. An experimen- tal investigation on rainfall infiltration and solute transport in such layered structures can provide the necessary foundation for effectively preventing and forecasting water bursting in mines, controlling contamination of mine water, and accomplishing ecological restoration of mining areas. A typical physical model of the layered structures with porous and fractured media was created in this study. Then rainfall infiltration experiments were conducted after salt solution was sprayed on the surface of the layered structure. The volumetric water content and concentration of chlorine ions at different specified positions along the profile of the experiment system were measured in real-time. The experimental results showed that the lower fractured media, with a considerably higher permeability than that of the upper porous media, had significant effects on preventing water infil- tration. Moreover, although the porous media were homogeneous statistically in the whole domain, spatial variations in the features of effluent concentrations with regards to time, or so called breakthrough curves, at various sampling points located at the horizontal plane in the porous media near the porous-fractured interface were observed, indicating the diversity of solute transport at small scales. Furthermore, the breakthrough curves of the outflow at the bottom, located beneath the underlying fractured rock, were able to capture and integrate features of the breakthrough curves of both the upper porous and fractured media, which exhibited multiple peaks, while the peak values were reduced one by one with time.

Experimental study and characteristic finite element simulation of solute transport in a cross-fracture

A new method, the characteristic finite element method （CFEM）, was developed to simulate solute transport in a cross-fracture. The solution of this mathematical model for solute transport considered that the contribution of convection and dispersion terms was deduced using the single-step, trace-back method and routine finite element method （FEM）. Also, experimental models were designed to verify the reliability and validity of the CFEM. Results showed that experimental data from a single fracture model agreed with numerical simulations obtained from the use of the CFEM. However, routine FEM caused numerical oscillation and dispersion during the calculation of solute concentration. Furthermore, in this cross-fracture model, CFEM simulation results predicted that the arrival time of concentration peak values decreased with increasing flux. Also, the second concentration peak value was obvious with the decrease of flux, which may have resulted from the convergence of solute concentrations from main, and branch, fractures.

Column Holdup Formula of Soil Solute Transport

The shortcomings of the present two formulae for describing column holdup are analyzed and deductions are made to find a new formula. The column holdup, Hw, described by the new formula is dimensional, and related to soil solute transport kinesis and column physical properties. Compared with the other two column holdups, Hw is feasible to describe dimensional column holdup during solute transport process. The relationships between Hw and retardation factor, R, in different solute transport boundary conditions are established.

A Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Blood Flow and Solute Transport in One-Dimensional Vessel Networks

This paper formulates an efficient numerical method for solving the convection diffusion solute transport equations coupled to blood flow equations in vessel networks.The reduced coupled model describes the variations of vessel cross-sectional area,radially averaged blood momentum and solute concentration in large vessel networks.For the discretization of the reduced transport equation,we combine an interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method in space with a novel locally implicit time stepping scheme.The stability and the convergence are proved.Numerical results show the impact of the choice for the steady-state axial velocity profile on the numerical solutions in a fifty-five vessel network with physiological boundary data.

An analytical solution for one-dimension transient solute transport

The mechanism of transport of chemicals in soil is an important research topic of environmental science and engineering, and some models and methods for a variety of solute transport problems have been done. However. most of previous works are usually for a soil column of infinite dimension. Starting from the one-dimension transient solute transport equation and its boundary and initial condition for a solute transport problem of soil column of finite length, this work has successfully applied a variable transformation to simplify the partial differential equation of solute transport problem. And an analytical serial solution for the simplified equation is then established by the so-called separated variable method and the superposition method. Compared with numerical methods such as finite different method and finite element method, this analytical solution is more accurate and of higher computation efficiency. In addition, the solution procedure presented could be extended for applications such as quality analysis, design of physical experimentation, or parameter estimation and measurement of solute transport problems.

Numerical Modelling of Dissolving and Driving Exploitation of Potash Salt in the Qarhan Playa——A Coupled Model of Reactive Solute Transport and Chemical Equilibrium in a Multi-component Underground Brine System

Firstly, the macroscopic chemical equilibrium state of a series of chemical reactions between intercrystal brine and its media salt layer （salt deposit） in Qarhan Salt Lake was studied by using the Pitzer theory. The concept of macroscopic solubility product and its relation with accumulated ore dissolving ratio were presented, which are used in the numerical model of dissolving and driving exploitation of potassium salt in Qarhan Salt Lake. And secondly, with a model forming idea of transport model for reacting solutes in the multi-component fresh groundwater system in porous media being a reference, a two-dimensional transport model coupled with a series of chemical reactions in a multi-component brine porous system （salt deposits） was developed by using the Pitzer theory. Meanwhile, the model was applied to model potassium/magnesium transport in Qarhan Salt Lake in order to study the transfer law of solid and liquid phases in the dissolving and driving process and to design the optimal injection/abstraction strategy for dissolving and capturing maximum Potassium/ Magnesium in the mining of salt deposits in Qarhan Salt Lake.

Characteristics of Solute Transport Continuously Released from Coastal Unconfined Aquifers under the Tidal Action Based on Laboratory Experiment

Most studies on solute transport in coastal aquifers affected by tides focus on the transport of instantaneous released solute,and there are few studies on continuously released solute affected by tides.In this study,the image monitoring method is used to establish the quantitative relationship between the concentration of the colored tracer and the hue value of the image,and the digital image is used to determine the tracer concentration distribution.Using image monitoring method laboratory experiments,quantitative analysis of the characteristics of continuously released solute transport in coastal unconfined aquifers under the tidal influence.Experiments show that the high tide inhibits the increase in the concentration of each point in the aquifer.Under the influence of tides,the solute plume retreats towards the land.During the low tide period,the solute plume migrates toward the sea again.And the solute plume will maintain a relatively stable shape after entering the aquifer for a long enough time.Ignoring the tidal effect seems to have little effect on the estimation of the position of the solute plume,but ignoring the tidal effect has a certain influence on the estimation of the dispersion range of the solute plume.No matter whether considering the tidal action,the final dispersion range of the solute plume is almost the same.But before the solute plume reaches a stable state,ignoring the tidal effect will lead to a smaller dispersion range of the solute plume.