Breakthrough Curves and Simulation of Virus Transport through Fractured Porous Media

Abstract

In this paper, an advective dispersive virus transport equation, including first-order adsorption and an inactivation constant, is used for simulating the movement of viruses in fractured porous media. The implicit finite-difference numerical technique is used to solve the governing equations for viruses in the fractured porous media. In this work, the focus is (1) to investigate the transport processes of the movement of viruses in both fractured rock and porous rock without fracture and (2) to simulate the experimental data of biocolloids through a fractured aquifer model. It is seen that movement of the contaminant is faster in the fractured rock than in the porous rock formation. Higher values of diffusion coefficient, matrix porosity, mass transfer constant, and inactivation rate reduce both temporal and spatial virus concentrations in the fracture. Also, experimental data of biocolloids in the fractured aquifer model with constant and time-dependent inactivation rates were simulated successfully.