Determination of the Optimal Strategy for Pump-And-Treat Method

An optimization process for the design of groundwater remediation is developed by simultaneously considering the well location and the pumping rate. This process uses two independent models: simulation and optimization model. Groundwater flow and contaminant transport are simulated with MODFLOW and MT3D in simulation model. In optimization model, the location and pumping rate of each well are determined and evaluated by the genetic algorithm. In a homogeneous and symmetric domain, the developed model is tested using sequential pairs for pumping rate of each well, and the model gives more improved result than the model using sequential pairs. In application cases, the suggested optimal design shows that the main location of wells is on the centerline of contaminate distribution. The resulting optimal design also shows that the well with maximum pumping rate is replaced with the further one from the contaminant source along flow direction and that the optimal pumping rate declines when more cleanup time is given. But the optimal pumping rate is not linearly proportional to the cleanup time and the minimum total pumping volume does not coincide with the optimal pumping rate.