Analytical Solutions for Contaminant Diffusion in Double-Layered Porous Media

Abstract

Analytical solutions for conservative solute diffusion in one-dimensional double-layered porous media are presented in this paper. These solutions are applicable to various combinations of fixed solute concentration and zero-flux boundary conditions (BC) applied at each end of a finite one-dimensional domain and can consider arbitrary initial solute concentration distributions throughout the media. Several analytical solutions based on several initial and BCs are presented based on typical contaminant transport problems found in geoenvironmental engineering including (1) leachate diffusion in a compacted clay liner (CCL) and an underlying stratum; (2) contaminant removal from soil layers; and (3) contaminant diffusion in a capping layer and underlying contaminated sediments. The analytical solutions are verified against numerical solutions from a finite-element method based model. Problems related to leachate transport in a CCL and an underlying stratum of a landfill and contaminant transport through a capping layer over contaminated sediments are then investigated, and the suitable definition of the average degree of diffusion is considered.