Propagation of nonlinear reactive contaminants in porous media

Abstract

A study on the effect of nonlinear reactions on the space and time distribution of contaminant plumes governed by the advective‐dispersive equation in porous media was conducted. Several models of nonlinear reactions were considered: the irreversible nonlinear first‐order kinetic sorption model, the nonlinear Freundlich sorption isotherm model, the nonlinear Langmuir sorption isotherm model, and the reversible nonlinear kinetic sorption model. Each of these models was coupled with the advective‐dispersive equation with dimensionless concentration and an approximate analytical series solutions was obtained. Comparison between linear and nonlinear plumes indicated that nonlinear reactions may have a significant effect on the shape and spatial distribution of a contaminant at a given time and in certain cases may explain quantitatively the occurrence of scaled (e.g., concentration change while preserving shape), retarded, and nonsymmetric plumes as well as the presence of back tails and sharp front ends usually observed in the field. By adopting a nonlinear model of contaminant migration a more realistic representation of contaminant propagation is possible than that obtained with a linear model.