Applicability of Relative Effective Porosity Model to Tracer Tests

An attempt has been made in this study to evaluate an applicability of Relative Effective Porosity Model (REPM) as a method for estimating saturated hydraulic conductivity (K$_{s}$) for homogeneous coarse, medium, and fine sands. The saturated hydraulic conductivities obtained from REPM are converted into average linear velocities using Darcy's Law and compared with the results from experimental tracer tests for homogeneous coarse, medium, and fine sand layer. Two types of tracer tests analyses, analytical solution using CXTFIT and moment methods, are performed to obtain reasonable linear velocity range for each layer. For the coarse and medium sands, the converted average linear velocity from REPM is in the velocity range obtained from tracer tests. However, small difference between the results from REPM and tracer tests is found for the fine sands. These results show that REPM gives reasonable estimates of saturated hydraulic conductivity.y.