Comparison of Nonaqueous Phase Liquids' Conductivity and Air Permeability of Different Soils

Abstract

It was recently shown that estimated transport parameters for nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) could differ significantly from measured parameters because of poor estimates for fluid conductivity. Most of the estimation procedures of the different multiphase flow simulators assume that porous media are rigid and noninteracting (ideal porous medium). This assumption is not valid in aggregated soil systems consisting in part of clay minerals. Inadequate conductivity estimates may be a direct result of desaggregation or clay volume changes (pore‐size distribution changes) when contact with different fluids occurs. To expand the experimental data set of models describing the movement of organic liquids polluting the soils and possibly to discover new relationships between the NAPL conductivity and the other soil parameters, a series of experiments was set up in which the air permeability was measured with a PL 300 permeameter (UGT) and the fluid (NAPL and water) conductivity was measured using the falling head method. The measurements were carried out on artificial soil columns. The soils originated from different horizons of characteristic Hungarian soils. The relationships between the NAPL conductivity and the various other soil parameters were examined statistically. To give a better prediction for the NAPL conductivity, a new estimation method that is based on the easily measurable soil parameters was suggested.