Modelling transport phenomena

Generally, the objective is to calculate three-dimensional fields of future hydraulic pressure, groundwater flow velocity, contaminant concentrations and contaminant transport fluxes. The input data for the simulation involves physical and chemical features of the interacting materials, such as soil porosity, hydraulic conductivity, pollutant decay rate, adsorption function, viscosity, soil and liquid compressibility. Specifying mass sources and sinks as marginal conditions and starting values as initial conditions are also necessary. Summing that up, if we are able to measure the current groundwater and contaminant distribution, to survey the soil layer geometry, and the contaminant sources are also known, we should be able to predict future pollutant distribution. That makes it possible to tell how far the pollution will advance in given time, or what concentration it will reach at a specified location.