High‐resolution Monte Carlo simulation of flow and conservative transport in heterogeneous porous media: 2. Transport results

Abstract

In this, the second of two papers concerned with the use of numerical simulation to examine flow and transport parameters in heterogeneous porous media via Monte Carlo methods, results from the transport aspect of these simulations are reported on. Transport simulations contained herein assume a finite pulse input of conservative tracer, and the numerical technique endeavors to realistically simulate tracer spreading as the cloud moves through a heterogeneous medium. Medium heterogeneity is limited to the hydraulic conductivity field, and generation of this field assumes that the hydraulic‐conductivity process is second‐order stationary. Methods of estimating cloud moments, and the interpretation of these moments, are discussed. Techniques for estimation of large‐time macrodispersivities from cloud second‐moment data, and for the approximation of the standard errors associated with these macrodispersivities, are also presented. These moment and macrodispersivity estimation techniques were applied to tracer clouds resulting from transport scenarios generated by specific Monte Carlo simulations. Where feasible, moments and macrodispersivities resulting from the Monte Carlo simulations are compared with first‐ and second‐order perturbation analyses. Some limited results concerning the possible ergodic nature of these simulations, and the presence of non‐Gaussian behavior of the mean cloud, are reported on as well.