Experimental Study and Models Comparison for Solute Transport through Riparian Zones

Abstract

Solute transport through riparian zone was studied experimentally and numerically with the consideration of silt layer. The silt layer had markable change on flow field and lead to a significant variation of the breakthrough curves (BTCs). BTCs of solute tracer tests show non-Fickian features as early arrival of peak value and long tailings. BTCs were fitted by advection dispersion equation (ADE), mobile and immobile model (MIM) and the continuous time random walk (CTRW) models. MIM and CTRW can fit BTCs better than ADE and MIM fit better on the capture of the peak value and CTRW fit better in description of the long tailing.