SIMULATING SOLUTE TRANSPORT IN AN AGGREGATED SOIL WITH THE DUAL-POROSITY MODEL - MEASURED AND OPTIMIZED PARAMETER VALUES

The capability of the first-order, dual-porosity model, which explicit ly accounts for non-ideal transport caused by the presence of 'immobil e' water, to predict the non-ideal transport of non-sorbing solute in a constructed aggregated soil has been investigated. Miscible-displace ment experiments performed with a well-characterized aggregated soil a nd a non-reactive tracer (pentafluorobenzoate) served as the source of the data. Values for the input parameters associated with physical no n-equilibrium were determined independently and compared with values o btained by curve fitting of the experimental measurements. The calcula ted and optimized values compared well, suggesting that the non-equili brium parameters represent actual physical phenomena.