Temporal Moment Analysis for Volatile Organic Compounds in Dual-Porosity Porous Media: Loss Fractions and Effective Parameters

Abstract

Using transform techniques, analytical expressions for potential losses by volatilization and degradation are developed for several organic compounds in dual porosity porous media. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to study the importance of different physical/chemical processes on volatilization, degradation, and leaching losses. To obtain estimates for overall solute behavior, expressions for effective Péclet numbers and degradation rates for organic contaminants are presented using method of moments. Results indicate that large fractions of many organic compounds are likely to volatilize into the atmosphere for sandy and clayey soils under typical flow conditions. It is found that nondimensional degradation influences both advective and dispersive effects. Thus, the Péclet number from effective-parameter equation tends to be enhanced when the nondimensional degradation is rather high. The simple expressions for moments and effective parameters can be used as screening tools to assess the behavior of volatile compounds in vadoze zone of soils.