Chaotic Advection and Enhanced Groundwater Remediation

Abstract

The field of groundwater remediation needs cost effective and time efficient technologies. Recent developments in the field of chaotic advection in low Reynolds number flows have led to the belief that a system of wells that oscillate between injection and extraction with time-dependent, randomly constrained flow rates could cause substantial mixing in an aquifer. This could have significant effects when combined with the advection and dispersion and biodegradation aspects of natural attenuation, especially in the context of mixing rate-limiting electron acceptors with contaminants that are serving as substrate for microbes. Chaotic advection enhanced remediation could possibly turn decades into years, while reducing both exposure risk and clean up costs. In this research work, we use flow and transport modeling to study the mixing phenomena created in groundwater by oscillating wells. To quantify mixing, an index is developed using the concept of average interparticle distances and implemented along with the dilution index, presented in the literature before.