Mathematical modeling for solute transport in aquifer

Abstract

Groundwater pollution may occur due to human activities, industrial effluents, cemeteries, mine spoils, etc. This paper deals with one-dimensional mathematical modeling of solute transport in finite aquifers. The governing equation for solute transport by unsteady groundwater flow is solved analytically by the Laplace transform technique. Initially, the aquifer is subjected to the spatially dependent source concentration with zero-order production. One end of the aquifer receives the source concentration and is represented by a mixed-type boundary condition in the splitting time domain. The concentration gradient at the other end of the porous media is assumed to be zero. The temporally dependent velocity and the dispersion coefficients are considered. A numerical solution is obtained by using an explicit finite difference scheme and compared with the analytical result. Accuracy of the solution is discussed by using the root mean square error method. Truncation error is also explored for the parameters like numerical dispersion and velocity terms. The impact of Peclet number is examined. For graphical interpretation, unsteady velocity expressions (i.e., such as exponential, sinusoidal, asymptotic, and algebraic sigmoid) are considered. The work may be used as a preliminary predictive tool for groundwater resource and management.