Abstract:
The study is an attempt to evaluate the behaviour of constituents/
pollutants moving with groundwater. Three examples having field relevance have
been demonstrated in the study. Dispersivity, adsorptivity and decay which are
primary parameters affecting the transport phenomena have been considered. The
dispersivity which is the main characterizing parameter in groundwater solute
transport problems has been considered for sensitivity analysis. It has also been
attempted to quantify errors when a when a 3-D problem is simplified to a 2-D
problem and a 2-D problem to a 1-D problem for convenience. The result indicated
that one-dimensional analytical and numerical solution of transport equation
compares well but simplifying a two-/three-dimensional transport problem to a
one-dimensional problem leads to error due to transverse dispersion. Close to the
source, advection dominates, whereas away from it the dispersion phenomena
dominate. It was also seen that transverse dispersivity becomes prominent as distance
increases from the source.
