• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4C
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• pp.231-238
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• 2008

A column testing device capable of measuring the electrical resistivity of soil at 3 different locations was developed to verify applicability of bulk electrical conductivity (BEC) breakthrough curves in monitoring contaminant transport. Tracer injection tests were conducted with three different types of saturated sands to obtain average linear velocities and longitudinal hydrodynamic dispersion coefficients based on BEC breakthrough curves and effluent solute breakthrough curves. Comparative analysis of transport parameters obtained from curve fitting the results into the analytical solutions confirmed the validity of resistance measurements in estimating time-continuous resident solute concentration. Under the assumption that a linear relationship exists between ${\sigma}_{sat}-{\sigma}_w-C$, the BEC breakthrough curves are able to effectively reduce the laborious and time-consuming processes involved in the conventional method of sampling and analysis. In order to reduce possible uncertainties in analyzing the BEC breakthrough curves, it was recommended that resistance measurements take place nearby the effluent boundary. In addition, a sufficient electrical contrast or difference in the electrical conductivity of the influent and the saturating solution is required to conduct reliable analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.387-400
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• 1991

An ocean compartment model simulating transport of nuclides by advection due to ocean circulation and intertaction with suspended sediments is developed, by which concentration breakthrough curves of nuclides can be calculated as a function of time. Dividing ocean into arbitrary number of characteristic compartments and performing a balance of mass of nuclides in each ocean compartment, the governing equation for the concentration in the ocean is obtained and a solution by the numerical integration is obtained. The integration method is specially useful for general stiff systems. For transfer coefficients describing advective transport between adjacent compartments by ocean circulation, the ocean turnover time is calculated by a two-dimensional numerical ocean model. To exemplify the compartment model, a reference case calculation for breakthrough curves of three nuclides in low-level radioactive wastes, Tc-99, Cs-137, and Pu-238 released from hypothetical repository under the seabed is carried out with five ocean compartments. Sensitivity analysis studies for some parameters to the concentration breakthrough curves are also made, which indicates that parameters such as ocean turnover time and ocean water volume of compartments have an important effect on the breakthrough curves.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.25-29
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• 1997

In many solute transport studies, either flux or resident concentration has been used. Choice of the concentration mode was dependent on the monitoring device in solute displacement experiments. It would be questionable, however. to accept the equivalency in the solute transport parameters between flux and resident concentrations in structured soils exhibiting preferential movement of solute. In this study, we investigate how they differ in the monitored breakthrough curves (BTCs) and transport parameters for a given boundary and flow condition by performing solute displacement experiments on a number of undisturbed soil columns. Both flux and resident concentrations have been simultaneously obtained by monitoring the effluent and resistance of the Horizontally-positioned TDR probes. The study reveals that soil columns having relatively high flux densities exhibited great differences in the degree of peak concentration and travel time of peak between flux and resident concentrations. The peak concentration in flux mode was several times higher than that in resident one. This was mainly due to the bypassing of solute through soil macropores.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.60-69
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• 2007

Understanding the behavior of gas phase VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in unsaturated soils is of a great environmental importance for public health concerns. Moment analysis for the breakthrough curves (BTCs) during transport of chemicals in porous media was known to be a useful tool to evaluate the velocity, spreadness, and the skewness of the plume of the chemicals. In this study, the temporal moments of the BTCs of a group of VOCs were analyzed for the gaseous transport in an unsaturated soil. BTCs were measured using lab-scale column experiments for four different VOCs at the water saturation range of 0.04-0.46, and for eleven VOCs at a water saturation of 0.21. The central second and third moments of the VOCs were compared with the water saturation and the first moment. It was found that both central second and third moments increased with the first moment. The central third moment was, however, found to be more sensitive to the first moment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.279-285
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• 1993

It is important to understand the interrelationship between adsorption, equilibrium and mass transport in efficient design and operation of the granular activated carbon(GAC) adsorption systems. In this study, the micro-diameter-depth adsorption system(MIDDAS) technique was developed to estimate equilibrium and mass transport parameters, which were utilized to simulate adsorption and mass transport phenomena dynamically and mathematically. The homogeneous surface diffusion model(HSDM) utilizing the estimated equilibrium and mass transport parameters including the film transfer coefficients and surface diffusivities from the MIDDAS technique, successfully predicted competitive adsorption, desorption and chromatographic displacement effects. In the binary solute system of p-chlorophenol(PCP) and p-nitrophenol(PNP), PCP was displaced by PNP and the HSDM could predict successfully. While the HSDM described the desorption breakthrough curves for PCP, PNP and PTS well when complete reversible adsorption was assumed, the desorption breakthrough curves for DBS could be predicted after subsequent incorporation of the degree of irreversibility into the model simulations.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2011

Transport of heavy metals such as Cd is affected by several rate-limiting processes including adsorption and desorption by exchange reactions in soils. In this study, column transport and batch kinetic experiments were performed to assess Cd mobility in a double-layered soil with a reclaimed saline and sodic soil (SSS) as top soil and macroporous granule (MPG) as a bottom layer. For individual soil layer having different physical and chemical properties, Cd was considered to be nonlinear reactivity with the soil matrix in layered soils. The dispersive equation for reactive solutes was solved with three types of boundary conditions for the interface between soil layers. The adsorption of Cd with respect to the saline-sodic sandy loam and the MPG indicated that the nature of the sites or the mechanisms involved in the sorption process of Cd was different and the amounts of Cd for both of samples increases with increasing amounts of equilibrium concentration whereas the amount of Cd adsorbed in saline-sodic sandy loam soil was higher than that in MPG. The results of breakthrough curve indicating relative Cd retardation accompanied by layer material and sequence during leaching showed that the number of pore volumes to reach the maximum relative concentration of 1 increased in the order of MPG, SSS, and double layer of SSS-MPG. Breakthrough curves (BTCs) from column experiments were well predicted with our double-layered model where independently derived solute physical and retention parameters were implemented.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2001

It has been known that nonlinear characteristics of sorption affect the transport behavior of water soluble pollutants in soils. However detailed experimental studies have not been performed to verify the effect of non-linearity of adsorption isotherm on transport of chemicals in porous media. In this research, the distortion of breakthrough curves of a cationic surfactant (cetylpyridinium chloride, CPC) in a engineered stainless steel column packed with glass beads were investigated. Glass beads with about 110 $\mu\textrm{m}$diameter coated with a thin n-decane film were used as the media providing the sorption surface for CPC. The CPC adsorption isotherm on the surface of n-decane from aqueous solution was a typical Langmuir type. The breakthrough curve of CPC using step Input showed a late breakthrough on the front side and early breakthrough on the back side accordance to the shape of the isotherm. The retardation factor of CPC was found to be a strong function of the input concentration, which also a manifestation of the non-linearity of the isotherm. The retardation factors for the CPC with step input agreed with those of pulse input that the maximum concentrations are controlled to be the same as the step input concentrations. This results support the validity of the unproven field practices of using hydrogeotracers with non-linear adsorption isotherms to determine the hydrogeological parameters, e.g., NAPL saturation, air-water or NAPL-water interfacial areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09c
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• pp.140-145
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• 2010

Consolidation in cohesive soils mainly focuses on compressibility of soils, but it affects solute transport in some cases. The consolidation process takes on particular significance for fine grained soils at high water content, such as dredged sediments, but has also been shown to be important for compacted clay liners during waste filling operation. Numerical investigation using CST1 and CST2 was reviewed on consolidation-induced solute transport in this paper, especially with the development of CST2 model, verification by comparing experimental results with numerical simulations, and cases studies regarding transport in a confined disposal facility (CDF) and during in-situ capping. The importance of the consolidation process on solute transport is accessed based on simulated concentration or mass breakthrough curves. Results indicate that neglecting transient consolidation effects may lead to significant errors in transport analyses, especially with soft contaminated cohesive soils undergoing large volume change.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.79-88
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• 2012

Migration tests were performed with conservative tracers in a fractured zone that had a single fracture of about 2.5 m distance at the KURT. To interpret the migration of the tracers in the fractured rock, a solute transport model was developed. A two dimensional variable aperture channel model was adopted to describe the fractured path and hydrology, and a particle tracking method was used for solute transport. The simulation tried not only to develop a migration model of solutes for open flow environments but also to produce ideas for a better understanding of solute behaviours in indefinable fracture zones by comparing them to experimental results. The results of our simulations and experiments are described as elution and breakthrough curves, and are quantified by momentum analysis. The main retardation mechanism of nonsorbing tracers, including matrixdiffusion, was investigated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 1996

Excessive phosphorus (P as orthophosphate) is one of the major pollutants in natural water that are responsible for algal blooms and eutrophication. P removal by slag is an attractive solution if the P sorption capacity of the slag is significant. To design an efficient land treatment facility, basic information on the behaviour of P in the media-water environment is required. In this study, detailed column experiments were conducted to study the P transport under dynamic condition, and mathematical models were developed to describe this process. The column experiments conducted with dust and cake waste products (slag) from BHP steel industry in Australia as adsorbing media indicated that they had higher sorption capacity of P than that of a sandy loam soil from North Sydney, Australia. P transport in the dust and cake columns exhibited characteristics S-shaped or curvilinear breakthrough curves. The simulated results from a dynamic physical non-equilibrium sorption model (DPNSM) and Freundlich isotherm constants satisfactorily matched the corresponding experimental breakthrough data. The mobility of P is restricted proportionally to the adsorbent's sorption capacity.