Speaker
Description
Small-scale infiltration dynamics can dictate larger-scale solute transport behavior in variably saturated porous media. Laboratory flow cell experiments show that short-term infiltration events (centimeter–hour scales) strongly influence transport over larger spatial and temporal scales (decimeter–day scales). In this case, lower influx rates lead to earlier breakthrough and sharper concentration peaks, as the tracer penetrates deeper into faster-flowing regions, whereas higher influx rates result in delayed, more dispersed breakthrough due to confinement of the plume to near-surface, lower-velocity zones.
Conventional Richards-based advection–dispersion modeling reproduces the higher discharge case but fails under lower discharge, indicating a misrepresentation of initial plume conditions. By decoupling infiltration from system-scale transport and imposing bounding initial plume configurations within a particle tracking framework, we successfully capture both regimes.
These findings highlight the dominant role of local infiltration dynamics in shaping large-scale transport behavior.
| Country | Israel |
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