Establishing a quantitative functional relationship between capillary pressure, saturation and interfacial area. 1997 annual progress report

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'There is a fundamental knowledge gap associated with the in situ remediation of non-aqueous phase pollutants. Currently it is not possible to accurately determine the interfacial surface area of non-aqueous contaminants. As a result it is impossible to (1) accurately establish the health and environmental risk associated with the pollution: (2) precisely quantify and evaluate the potential efficacy of various in situ treatment technologies; and (3) conduct reliable performance assessments of the applied remediation technology during and after the clean-up. The global goal of this investigation is to try to remedy these shortcomings through the development of a formalized functional relationship between interfacial area (a), phase saturation (S) and capillary pressure (P). The development of this relationship will allow the direct determination of the fluid-fluid interfacial area from field measurements. Quantitative knowledge of the surface area of the non-aqueous phase pollutant facilitates accurate predictions of both the rate of dissolution and the contact area available for treatment. In addition. if saturation and capillary pressure measurements are made during the remediation process. both the spatial and temporal effectiveness of the remediation technology can be quantified. This information can then be used to optimize the restoration program. The project objective will be achieved through an integrated and focused research program that is comprised of theoretical computational and experimental efforts. These efforts are organized into a framework of four tasks: (1) improve on newly developed laboratory techniques to quantify and directly measure the functional relationship between phase interfacial area (a), saturation (S) and capillary pressure (P). (2) Develop new computational algorithms in conjunction with laboratory measurements to predict P, S and a. (3) Test existing theory and develop new theory to describe the relationship between P, S and a at the large scale. (4) Synthesize the results of the experimental, computational and theoretical investigative efforts to develop a generic model based upon an intrinsic soil metric to describe the functional dependence of P, S and a.'