Aquifer heterogeneity on well capture zone and solute transport: numerical investigations with spatial moment analysis

TLDR: The influence of hydraulic conductivity on the movement of flow and nonreactive solute transport through aquifers was evaluated in this paper, where several different log-normal probability distribution functions bounded within a fixed range were adopted for simulating the heterogeneous spatial distribution of hydraulicconductivity.

Abstract: The influence of hydraulic conductivity on the movement of flow and nonreactive solute transport through aquifers was evaluated. Several different log-normal probability distribution functions bounded within a fixed range were adopted for simulating the heterogeneous spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity. Programming codes for two-dimensional confined aquifers were developed to solve the groundwater flow and solute transport equations for a hypothetical setup. Well capture zones were delineated using capture fractions and calculated the concentration moments. Results indicated that an increased shape parameter leads to more heterogeneity in the hydraulic conductivity field and significantly enhances the non-uniformity in the flow and solute plume movements. The findings were generalized for the continuous, discrete, and mixed zonal models, simulated with different parameter values, to yield a lower and upper range for the model derivatives. The results also described the influence of the connectedness of hydraulic conductivity fields on groundwater flow and transport, using capture fractions and plume moments as connectivity indicators. Hence, capture fractions and plume moment statistics aided the careful characterization of aquifer conductivity as a reasonable method of ranking flow and transport connectivity in aquifer flow and transport processes.