• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.1372-1377
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• 2009

For the remediation of the subsurface contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPLs), it is important to characterize the NAPL zone properly. Conventional characterization methods provide data at discrete points. To overcome the weak points of conventional characterization methods, the partitioning tracer method has been developed and studied. The average saturation of NAPL($S_n$), which is the representative and continuous saturation value within contaminated site, can be calculated by comparing the transport of the partitioning tracers to that of the conservative tracer in the partitioning tracer method. In this study, the application of the partitioning tracer method in heterogeneous media was investigated. To represent the heterogeneous condition of subsurface, a two-dimensional soil box was divided into four layers and each layer contained different sized soils. Soils in the soil box were contaminated by the mixture of kerosene and diesel, and partitioning tracer tests were conducted before and after the contamination using methanol as conservative tracer and 4-methyl-2-pentanol, 2-ethyl-1-butanol, and hexanol as partitioning tracers. The response curves of partitioning tracers from contaminated soils were separated and retarded in comparison with those from non-contaminated soils. The contamination of soils by NAPLs, therefore, can be detected by partitioning tracer method considering these retardations of tracers. From our experiment condition, the average saturation of NAPLs calculated by partitioning tracer method using the methanol as conservative tracer and hexanol as partitioning tracer showed the highest accuracy, though all results were underestimated. Further studies, therefore, were needed for improving the accuracy using the partitioning tracer test in heterogeneous media.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.245-261
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• 1998

In order to validate the variable aperture channel model that can deal with the non-uniform How rate in flow domain, migration experiments of conservative tracer were performed in two artificial fractures, a parallel and a wedge-shaped fracture. These different fracture shapes were designed to give different flow pattern. The fractures were made from a transparent acrylic plastic plate and a granite slab with dimensions of 10 $\times$ 61 $\times$ 61 cm. Uranine (Fluorescein sodium salt) was used as a conservative tracer. The volumetric flow rates of uranine feed solution were 30 mL/ hr, giving a mean residence time in the fracture of approximately 24 hours for the parallel fracture and 34 hours for the wedge-shaped fracture. The migration plumes of uranine were photographed to obtain profiles in space and time for movement of a tracer in fractures. The photographed migration plume was greatly affected by the geometric shape of fractures. The variable aperture channel model could have predicted the experimental results for the parallel fracture with a large accuracy. It is expected that the variable aperture channel model would be effective to predict the transport of the contaminant, especially, with the flow rate variation in a fracture.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.3-9
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• 2011

Partitioning tracers have been used with non-partitioning, inert tracer such Br, for detection, estimation, and monitoring of remediation performance of the subsurface contaminated with nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). Various partitioning tracers with different partition coefficients between aqueous and nonaqueous phase liquids can be used to determine the hydraulic conductivity, dispersivity, and residual mass of NAPLs in the subsurface soil matrices. Temporal moment-generating equations were used to analyze the field pilot-scale test results. The pilot-scale tests included conservative tracer tests and partitioning tracer tests. Analyses of nonaqueous phase liquid distribution and characteristics of groundwater bearing soil media were performed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 1998

It is necessary to calculate the accurate velocity from the hydraulic model for the reliable prediction of water quality changes in water supply system. To verify the hydraulic analysis of the water supply system, fluoride was used as a tracer to calculate the travel time from the injection point to the sampling points. Results from this field experiment indicate that fluoride can be a good conservative tracer while it showed a little longitudinal dispersion along the pipe lines. And the velocity from the model was verified by these travel times and calibrated by changing the ratio of the unaccountable water. When the ratio of the unaccountable water. When the ratio of the unaccountable water was 20%, the error between the estimation of hydraulic model and the real travel time was minimum.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.352-358
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• 2005

This study aims to separate hydrograph into baseflow and event water to calculate baseflow rate during a rainfall in small catchments, Yuseong, Daejeon, The hydrograph of stream during a period with no excess rainfall will decay. The discharge is composed entirely of groundwater contributions. During the period, the Cl concentration of the stream water can be regarded as being in equilibrium with that of the groundwater. Using Cl as a conservative tracer, two-component hydrograph separations were performed from end point of the period to next end point. The required data were obtained by monitoring of the surface water table, along with discharge rate of stream. Cl concentration of rainfall, surface water were measured and recorded. Hydrograph separation, a mixing model using chemical tracer is applied to chemical hydrograph separation technique. These results show that baseflow rates are 31.6% of rainfall in the catchments during study period.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.20-28
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• 2006

Partitioning tracer tests were conducted to quantify the saturation degree of diesel and water in unsaturated soil, respectively. The use of partitioning tracers that partition into diesel, water, and air (i.e., three-phase partitioning), is in attractive alternative to traditional coring and analysis method. These gaseous partition tracers not global warming gas like CFC's are Butane, Acetylene, Ethylene, Methylene chloride, and Methane. The glass column packed with sandy soil was prepared, in which a three-phase system of air, water, and diesel was maintained. Conservative and partition gas tracers were injected into the columns and detected easily using a single GC detector(FID). For each tracer, a method of moments was used to estimate partition coefficient between water, diesel. and the air, respectively. The results from the column studies showed that the diesel/air tracer partition coefficient ranged from 8.2 to 868 and 9.2 for water/air. Saturation degree of diesel and water in the column, predicted by the partition coefficients obtained from tests, was underestimated up to 66% and 23% respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.57-59
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• 2002

The dissolution process of NAPLs is significantly important in predicting the transport and/or fate of the contaminants and designing remedial systems. In this research, experimental observations on dissolution of TCE pool under various hydrodynamic conditions are done using an aquifer model. Hydrodynamic parameters such as linear pore velocity and dispersion coefficient are estimated from the results of preliminary tracer tests using bromide as conservative tracer before doing the TCE dissolution experiments. It is found that hydrodynamic parameters are distinctly affected by the clay lens imbeded in the aquifer model. Nonequilibrium and transient dissolution rates are observed from the results of TCE dissolution experiments.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.82-91
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• 2006

We investigated the possibility of using effluents from a municipal sewage treatment plant (STP) as tracers a tracer for hydrologic studies of rivers. The possibility was checked in a 12-km long reach downstream of Jeonju Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant (JSTP). Time-series monitoring of the water chemistry reveals that chemical compositions of the effluent from the JSTP are fluctuating within a relatively wide range during the sampling period. In addition, the signals from the plant were observed at the downstream stations consecutively with increasing time lags, especially in concentrations of the conservative chemical parameters (concentrations f3r chloride and sulfate, total concentration of major cations, and electric conductivity). Based on this observation, we could estimate the stream flow (Q), velocity (v), and dispersion coefficient (D). A 1-D nonreactive solute-transport model with automated optimization schemes was used for this study. The values of Q, v, and D estimated from this study varied from 6.4 to $9.0m^3/sec$ (at the downstream end of the reach), from 0.06 to 0.10 m/sec, and from 0.7 to $6.4m^2/sec$, respectively. The results show that the effluent from a large-scaled municipal STP frequently provides good, multiple natural tracers far hydrologic studies.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2023

APro, developed in KAERI for the process-based total system performance assessment (TSPA) of deep geological disposal systems, performs finite element method (FEM)-based multiphysics analysis. In the FEM-based analysis, the mesh element quality influences the numerical solution accuracy, memory requirement, and computation time. Therefore, an appropriate mesh structure should be constructed before the mesh stability analysis to achieve an accurate and efficient process-based TSPA. A generic reference case of DECOVALEX-2023 Task F, which has been proposed for simulating stationary groundwater flow and time-dependent conservative transport of two tracers, was used in this study for mesh stability analysis. The relative differences in tracer concentration varying mesh structures were determined by comparing with the results for the finest mesh structure. For calculation efficiency, the memory requirements and computation time were compared. Based on the mesh stability analysis, an approach based on adaptive mesh refinement was developed to resolve the error in the early stage of the simulation time-period. It was observed that the relative difference in the tracer concentration significantly decreased with high calculation efficiency.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.17-28
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• 2010

As a preliminary survey to improve efficiency of well-based permeable reactive barrier system for groundwater remediation, this site-scale study was carried to identify the flowpaths and controlling factors of plume at a remediation site in Suwon City, Korea. A total of 22 monitoring wells were installed as a grid system in the $4m{\times}4m$ square area by 1-m interval. For the groundwater characterization, various tests were performed including water-level monitoring, water sampling & analysis, pumping and slug tests, and tracer tests. The aquifer appeared to be unconfined with hydraulic conductivities (K) ranging from $2.6{\times}10^{-4}cm/s$ to $9.5{\times}10^{-3}cm/s$. The average linear velocity of groundwater was estimated to be $2.94{\times}10^{-6}m/s$, and the longitudinal dispersivity of a conservative tracer to be $5.94{\times}10^{-7}m^2/s$. Groundwater plume moves preferentially through the high-K zones, and the relatively high ion concentrations along the low-K zones implying deterred groundwater flow. Consequently, the spatial variation of hydraulic conductivity caused by aquifer heterogeneity and anisotropy appears to be the most important factor to maximize the effect of plume treatment system for application of in-situ groundwater remediation techniques.