Study of forward–backward solute dispersion profiles in a semi-infinite groundwater system

Abstract

ABSTRACT Forward–backward solute dispersion with an intermediate point source in one-dimensional semi-infinite homogeneous porous media is studied in this paper. Solute transport under sorption conditions, first-order decay and zero-order production terms are included. The first type of boundary condition is taken as a constant point source at an intermediate point from where forward and backward solute dispersion is examined. The Laplace transform method is adopted to solve the governing equation analytically. All the analytical results are obtained in graphical form to investigate the forward–backward solute transport in porous media for various hydrological input data. The graphical nature of the analytical solution is compared with numerical data taken from existing literature and similar results are obtained. Also, numerical solution of the governing equation is obtained by the Crank-Nicolson finite difference scheme and validated with the analytical solution, which demonstrates good agreement between them. Accuracy of the solution is also observed by using RMSE.