ISSN:
1745-6584
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
,
Geosciences
Notes:
Numerical models of solute transport in water-saturated porous media are routinely used to make regulatory and design decisions. For many contaminants, decisions are based on concentrations of 5 parts per billion (ppb) or less. This “action level“ is usually a small fraction (〈0.01) of the concentrations near a source of contamination. Two one-dimensional example problems are used to demonstrate that modeling errors using classical numerical methods are largest where concentrations are lowest. This implies that in regions of low dimensionless concentration, that is near the action level, large relative errors can be expected. Hence, decisions based on numerical model solutions at low concentrations must be taken cautiously. Modern numerical methods for the solution of transport equations provide better behavior, in this sense, than classical methods.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1993.tb00874.x
