A mobile-mobile transport model for simulating reactive transport in connected heterogeneous fields

Abstract

Mobile-immobile transport models can be effective in reproducing heavily tailed breakthrough curves of concentration. However, such models may not adequately describe transport along multiple flow paths with intermediate velocity contrasts in connected fields. We propose using the mobile-mobile model for simulating subsurface flow and associated mixing-controlled reactive transport in connected fields. This model includes two local concentrations, one in the fast- and the other in the slow-flow domain, which predict both the concentration mean and variance. The normalized total concentration variance within the flux is found to be a non-monotonic function of the discharge ratio with a maximum concentration variance at intermediate values of the discharge ratio. We test the mobile-mobile model for mixing-controlled reactive transport with an instantaneous, irreversible bimolecular reaction in structured and connected random heterogeneous domains, and compare the performance of the mobile-mobile to the mobile-immobile model. The results indicate that the mobile-mobile model generally predicts the concentration breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the reactive compound better. Particularly, for cases of an elliptical inclusion with intermediate hydraulic-conductivity contrasts, where the travel-time distribution shows bimodal behavior, the prediction of both the BTCs and maximum product concentration is significantly improved. Our results exemplify that the conceptual model of two mobile domains with diffusive mass transfer in between is in general good for predicting mixing-controlled reactive transport, and particularly so in cases where the transfer in the low-conductivity zones is by slow advection rather than diffusion.