https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714009020
Tracer experiments in periodical heterogeneous model porous medium
1 Univ. Montpellier, HSM (UMR 5569, CNRS, IRD, UM), CC0057, 163 rue Auguste Broussonnet 34090 Montpellier
2 Inria Sophia, Team Lemon
* e-mail: samer.majdalani@umontpellier.fr
** e-mail: carole.delenne@umontpellier.fr
*** e-mail: vincent.guinot@umontpellier.fr
Published online: 30 June 2017
It is established that solute transport in homogenous porous media follows a classical ’S’ shape breakthrough curve that can easily be modelled by a convection dispersion equation. In this study, we designed a Model Heterogeneous Porous Medium (MHPM) with a high degree of heterogeneity, in which the breakthrough curve does not follow the classical ’S’ shape. The contrast in porosity is obtained by placing a cylindrical cavity (100% porosity) inside a 40% porosity medium composed with 1mm glass beads. Step tracing experiments are done by injecting salty water in the study column initially containing deionised water, until the outlet concentration stabilises to the input one. Several replicates of the experiment were conducted for n = 1 to 6 MHPM placed in series. The total of 116 experiments gives a high-quality database allowing the assessment of experimental uncertainty. The experimental results show that the breakthrough curve is very different from the ‘S’ shape for small values of n, but the more n increases, the more the classical shape is recovered.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
