The effects of viscosity and subsurface heterogeneity on a brine barrier approach to DNAPL remediation

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  • March 21, 2019
Creator
  • Murphy, Lauren L.
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Abstract
  • Dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) are a long-term source of groundwater contamination. Difficulties of current remediation methods have led to the study of a novel brine barrier remediation technology (BBRT) which presents a solution to current limitations. This study utilized a mathematical model to advance understanding of BBRT at the macroscale. A subset of stochastic functions was employed to represent correlated random permeability fields and to asses their impacts on brine emplacement and brine removal efficiency. The injection of a highly viscous brine into the subsurface was seen to cause a decrease in permeability, leading to brine mounding around injection wells. For moderately heterogeneous domains, this behavior was able to be mitigated by the use of sufficiently low injection rates. However, local heterogeneities were shown to be the dominant factor in subsequent brine removal, emphasizing the importance of subsurface knowledge for accurate modeling and efficient implementation of BBRT.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Miller, Cass T.
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • October 19, 2010

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file details The effects of viscosity and subsurface heterogeneity on a brine barrier approach to DNAPL remediation 2019-04-12 Public Download